E 629 

,'-'^\ FIRST AND SECOND ANNUAL REPORTS 

Copy 1 



"^u^m "^ssatmim for ^oMers' Jlelief 



OF UNITED STATES. 



PHILADELPHIA, JULY 2 8, 186 3. 



PRESIDENT. 

MES. MAEY A. BEADY, 

406 South Forty-first Street. 
TKEASUHEB. 

MES. M. A. DOBBINS, 

1801 Mount Vernon Street. 
HONOKARY SECRETARY. 

EDAYAED BEADY, 

Counsellor-at-Law, 135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS. 
18 64. 



Liz^ 



FIEST AHNUAL EEPOET 

OP THE 

LADIES' ASSOCIATION FOR SOLDIERS' RELIEF 

OF UNITED STATES. 

Philadelphia, July 28, 1863. 



July 28, 1862. A number of ladies met together at No. 135 South 
Fifth Street, Philadelphia, and formed themselves into a Ladies' Associa- 
tion for Soldiers' Relief of U. S.,the principal objects contemplated being, 

1. That the members, with the sole exception of an Honorary Secre- 
tary, shall consist of ladies only. 

2. That committees of members shall, /or the present, visit the differ- 
ent wards of the U. S. A. General Hospital, West Philadelphia, for the 
purpose of ameliorating the coqditiou of the sick and wounded soldiers ; 
and 

3. To make visits, for the above purpose, to the sick and wounded sol- 
diers of the Army of the Potomac in the field, as soon as, and as often 
as, occasion may render the same advisable. 

4. That the Ladies* Association for Soldiers' Relief of U. S. will 
receive for distribution from time to time, money and such sanitary stores 
as may be donated by their friends and by the public. 

5. That the Ladies' Association and its ofiicers may be officially recog- 
nized by the Government, the military and medical authorities of the 
United States, and by the State of Pennsylvania, as well as by the public 
generally. 

6. That the services, of whatsoever kind, of the officers and members 
of the Association, shall be wholly voluntary and entirely gratuitous, 
without any pay or pecuniary recompense, other than the necessary tra- 
velling and other expenses incurred by them. 

7. That every member shall subscribe one dollar per month, for the 
incidental advertising expenses of the Association, in addition to an 
entrance fee of one dollar on her being elected a member, 

By-Laws were also duly adopted. 

■ July 30, 1862. A letter of recognition of the Ladies' Association was 
received from Dr. I. I. Hayes, Surgeon-in-charge of U. S. A. General 
Hospital, West Philadelphia; and committees of ladies were at once 



organized, who visited daily, during a period of many months, the various 
wards of this extensive and well-managed hospital. 

Large quantities of delicacies, &c., were distributed by the ladies 
among the three thousand sick and wounded soldiers in the Satterlee hos- 
pital, by the hands of the several committees, facilities being granted 
to them by Dr. Hayes, and by all the ward surgeons, and the exertions of 
the ladies being appreciated by the brave sick and wounded patients. 

During the fruit season, peaches, apples, &c., were often distributed at 
the hospital by the President and members of the Association. 

Acknowledgments frequently appeared in the public newspapers of 
large quantities of sanitary stores donated by the public to the Ladies' 
Association, for distribution. 

Occasionally, it would happen that sick soldiers, either on furlough or 
discharged, would be assisted by the Association with money, or with 
tickets on the railroads, to their homes in distant States. Sometimes, the 
Association would detail a nurse, hired by them, to accompany a sick or 
wounded soldier, who was otherwise too feeble, or crippled, to travel by 
himself, all the way home to his family, in the interior of the State. 

The Association has constantly been in receipt of letters, such as the 
following, expressive of gratitude to the members, for attentions shown to 
the patriotic men who have fought and- bled for our country. 

Easton, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1862. 

Mrs. Mary A. Brady. 

Madam : With unbounded gratitude I communicate to you my appre- 
ciation of your endless benevolence and extreme kindness shown towards 
us, while we were so badly afflicted in the West Philadelphia Hospital. 
We shall none of us ever forget the remembrance of the ladies, and we 
would feel obliged to you if you will please forward your photograph. 
Having arrived at a natural quiet in my peaceful home, I hope to recover 
my health, if it please a merciful Providence. My mother sends her 
regards and blessings to you. 

I am. Madam, yours sincerely, 

Jonathan J. Carey, 

Late Corporal Company C, 5th Regiment, U. S. Artillery. 

Headquarters, Camp near Fairfax CorRT House, Va., 
January 15, 1863. 

Mrs. Mary A. Brady. 

Madam : For the articles you so kindly presented to the men of this 
Company, I am desired, on their behalf, to thank you. The merest trifle, 
if it comes from home, is valued by them greatly, they being absent on 
duty. These goods are in themselves quite acceptable. 

Your kind presents will be an additional incentive to our exertions for 
our country, and will tend to strengthen our arms in the hour of danger. 
Once more, for the Company as well as myself, I return to you our heart- 
felt thanks, for the kind remembrance of us by yourself and the ladies. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Joseph J. McGuigan, 

First Lieutenant Company B, 29th Regiment, P. V. 



Camp near Belle Plain, Va., January 19, 1863. 

Mrs. Mary A. Brady. 

Dear Friend : There is one of my comrades in the West Philadel- 
phia Hospital, Ward H, by the name of Harry Griffin. 1 wish you would 
be so kind as to call and see him, as you make your daily rounds. You 
are engaged in a good work, in visiting the afflicted and by contributino- 
to their wants ; and surely you will reap your reward in due season, and 
God will bless you. Every true soldier you have helped will remember 
you with respect and gratitude. I shall always remember you myself 
with deep feelings of gratitude, and I will never forget the kindness 
bestowed upon me by the ladies. '' A friend in need is a friend indeed." 
My arm is still sore. 

Believe me to be, Madam, yours truly, 

Joseph A. Winters, 

Company B, Seventh Regiment, P. V. 
Camp near Falmouth, Virginia, April 25, 1863. 

Mrs. Mary A. Brady. 

Dear Madam : It may seem that I had forgotten the favors which I 
received at your hands, while I was stopping in the West Philadelphia 
Hospital ; but not so, as I should be ungrateful if I did. I shall never 
forget the good bits brought in by you to the sick soldiers, besides articles 
of clothing, which were much needed then by some of the wounded sol- 
diers, who had lost everything. Our company is now detailed for guard 
duty of wagon trains of supplies and ammunition, and I had not much 
spare time this winter. We ar&\under marching orders, and I think the 
army would have moved sooner, if we had had good weather. I hope 
when we do move we will be victorious, as this is a fine army. I suppose 
some of the boys in the hospital have been discharged, and are gone 
home. I do not wish for my discharge, and would not take it even if it 
was oifered to me, until we have put down the rebels ; although I shall 
be glad when this civil war closes. With my best respects to the ladies, 
I remain, Madam, 

Yours respectfully and gratefully, 

DwiGHT D. Graves, 

Private, Company B, 32d Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. 

September 5, 1862. The Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Belief of 
U. S. having become extensively known, all the daily newspapers of 
Philadelphia inserted, gratuitously, local paragraphs, applauding its ob- 
jects and suggesting a generous support from the public. Likewise the 
Governor of Pennsylvania addressed to the Association a complimentary 
letter, which appeared in the following local notice, which is extracted 
from the Public Ledger : 

" The Ladies Association for Soldiers' Helief of United States again 
desire to record their thankful acknowledgments for quite a number of 
large and valuable donations from various persons and firms, of money, 
dry goods, preserves, fruits, wines, &c., which have been judiciously and 
systematically apportioned among the three thousand sick and wounded 
soldiers in the U. S. A. General Hospital, West Philadelphia. 



" Mrs. Mary A. Brady, the Presitlent, has also recently received for 
distribution, a number of boxes of linen, wines, jams, &c., from citizens 
of West Chester, Churchville, Line Lexington, Douglasville, Three Tuns, 
and Yardleyville, and five barrels of sundries from Easton, Pennsylvania. 

" We are requested to suggest that contributions be clubbed together 
in all the diiferent towns and villages of our own, or even of neighboring 
Commonwealths, as many of the patients in our hospitals are from other 
States. 

" Many a patriot soldier, languishing on a sick-bed here, far away from 
the soothing attentions of his wife, sisters, or mother, gratefully appre- 
ciates the kindnesses daily shown him voluntarily by our philanthropic 
ladies, who devote themselves gratuitously to alleviate the sufferings of 
those brave men who hazard their health and lives for us and our families. 

'' Books, flannel shirts, woollen socks, slippers, linen handkerchiefs, and 
tobacco, are much needed at present. All communications and donations 
can be addressed to Mrs. Mary A. Brady, President, 40') South Forty- 
first Street, or sent to the office of the Association, No. 135 South Fifth 
Street, Philadelphia. 

" His Excellency, the Governor of Pennsylvania, always mindful of 
everything which interests and benefits our citizen volunteers, thus 
expresses himself towards the Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Belief 
of U. S. : 

"Executive Chamber, Harrisbueg, Pa., 
September 5, 1862. 

To Captain Edward Brady, 

Honorary Secretary. 

Dear Sir : Permit me to say, that I have watched with much plea- 
sure the success which has attended the formation of the Ladies' Associa- 
tion for Soldiers' Relief of U. S., at Philadelphia. The objects of the 
Association are eminently praiseworthy, and the ladies connected with it, 
as well as yourself, are entitled to the gratitude of all our people. 

For what they, and you, have done and are doing on behalf of our sick 
and wounded soldiers, I desire, personally, to tender to you all my best 
thanks. I am, dear sir, respectfully yours, 

A. G. CURTIN, 
Governor and Commander-in-Chief, P. M." 

October 21, 1862. The Public Ledger also contained in its local co- 
lumns as follows : 

" The Ladies' Asrocw t i on for Soldiers' Relief of U. aS'.— The U. S. A. 
General Hospital, West Philadelphia, being so large, and containing at 
the present time about three thousand sick and wounded soldiers, there is 
an abundant opportunity for liberal donations of a patriotic public. It is 
impossible, where the patients are so numerous, that koo much can be done 
towards an amelioration of the sufferings of these brave men. 

" In the smaller hospitals, where there are only one or two hundred 
patients, and which are situated in the heart of the city, there are of 
course greater facilities of access, and consequently, the proportion of 
benevolent ladies who visit them is much larger than at West Phi- 
ladelphia. 



" If the generous public could witness the spontaneous expressions of 
gratitude from these sick and wounded soldiers, towards the ladies who 
are active members of the Ladies' Association, for their voluntary and 
devoted efforts to assuage their pangs and to ameliorate their condition, 
we feel sure that donations of comforts and luxuries adapted to their 
special cases, would be stimulated. 

"In so vast an establishment as that at ^Yest Philadelphia, and which 
is under the careful management of Doctor Hayes, of Arctic regions 
celebrity, a recent circumspection in regard to passes of admission into 
the wards of the hospital became necessary, to guard against the indis- 
creet presents of deleterious articles to the sick and wounded men from 
well-meaning people. 

"We understand that the members of the Ladies' Association for 
Soldiers' Relief of U. S. have been constant and unremittent in their 
attendance at the hospital from its commencement, to soothe the sick and 
wounded soldiers, who are far away from their homes, and who are thus 
deprived of the tender sympathies of their wives, sisters, and mothers. 

" The U. S. A. medical staff of the hospital readily extend every 
facility in their power to the President and Board of Managers of this 
Association, who are personally recognized by them. 

"Donations of money, flannel shirts, linen, fruit, jellies, or other suit- 
able articles, will be thankfully received by Mrs. Mary A. Brady, Presi- 
dent, 406 South Forty-first Street, or by Mrs. M. A. Dobbins, Treasurer, 
1801 Mount Vernon Street, or by Edward Brady, Attorney-at-law, the 
Honorary Secretary, 135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia." 

November 27, 1862, having been proclaimed by the Executive of the 
State of Pennsylvania as a day of Annual Thanksgiving, the Ladies' 
Association resolved to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner of roast turkeys, 
chickens, pies, &c., to about eighteen hundred patients and nurses, who 
were at that time inmates of the U. S. A. General Hospital, West Phi- 
ladelphia. 

In order to raise ample means for this object, Mrs. Mary A. Brady 
and Miss Lidie C. Price effected arrangements for a grand benefit to be 
given to the Ladies' Association, by S. S. Sanford's celebrated Opera 
Troupe, at Concert Hall, Philadelphia, and which performance took place 
on November 14th. The plans of these ladies were so successful, the 
hall was quite crowded, and many people were unable to obtain admission. 

The Thanksgiving dinner was of course a work of some magnitude, 
and the arrangements were perfected chiefly by Mrs. Brady, Mrs. Dob- 
bins, Mrs. M. N. Price, Mrs. William' Howell, Mrs. Lizzie J. Dewees, 
Mrs. H. Walter, Mrs. E. Tolnian, Miss L. C. Price, Miss H. C. Gal- 
lagher, Miss E. Stokely, Miss Mary 0. Meara, and Edward Brady, Hon- 
orary Secretary. 

The following extracts from the local items of the various newspapers 
of Philadelphia, refer to the success of the dinner : 

" The Ladies' Aswciation for Soldiers Relief of U. S. gave a grand 
turkey-and-pie Thanksgiving dinner to every soldier and employee in the 



6 

U. S. A. General Hospital, at Forty-fifth and Spruce Streets, West Phi- 
ladelphia. 

"It is the largest institution of the kind in the city, and is under the 
charge of Dr. I. I. Hayes. The Association provided the repast, the 
whole being contributed by them. 

" The ladies engaged two bakers' ovens to roast the poultry, &c., which 
was sent up warm to the hospital in covered wagons. " 

" One hundred and seventy-five turkeys, with seasoning, one hundred 
chickens, twenty geese, sixty ducks, eight hundred and fifty pies, eighty- 
five rice puddings, and fifteen barrels of apples, besides the customary 
vegetables, were amply discussed by a majority of the patients. The 
whole aff"air was under the direction of Mrs. Mary A. Brady and Miss 
Lidie C. Price, as a committee, with the approval of the Hospital Medical 
Staff. Doctor Hayes ordered a release of all the inmates of the guard- 
house, at the request of Mrs. Brady. The number of sick Union soldiers 
at present in the Satterlee hospital is sixteen hundred and seventy-five." 

December 18, 1862. The Ladies' Association resolved, in view of the 
suffering among the sick and wounded soldiers of the Army of the Po- 
tomac in the field, who are comparatively, by reason of the exigencies of 
civil war, and their distance from the ordinary channels of relief, not so 
well attended-to by the personal efforts of citizens, as those sick and 
wounded who have already been transferred to our large cities, to direct 
the exertions of the members of the Association exclusively to the sick 
and wounded Union soldiers in Virginia. Mrs. Brady, Mrs. Dobbins, 
Miss Price, and the Honorary Secretary, were therefore requested to visit 
Camp Convalescent, Virginia, and the military hospitals at Alexandria, 
Virginia. 

The Association ordered, that in future, all collections of money and 
stoi'es shall be appropriated solely for the benefit of the sick and wounded 
Union soldiers of the Army of the Potomac in the field. 

Circumstances unexpectedly prevented Mrs. Dobbins and Miss Price 
from proceeding to Virginia on that occasion ; so Mrs. Brady, accompa- 
nied by the Honorary Secretary, made a first trip to the army in the field 
in Virginia, and the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, of January 14, 1S63, 
contained the following report of this visit : 

Report of a Visit of Ladies to the Sick and Woiinded Soldiers of 
the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. 

We left Philadelphia on Monday morning last for Washington, D. C., 
preceded to the railroad depot by the West Philadelphia Fire Company's 
ambulances, who kindly volunteered their services, with forty large boxes 
and six barrels of delicacies, &c., donated by numerous friends, and by 
the public generally, whose liberality in thus enabling us to cheer and 
assist the brave patriots in the field, who are hazarding their health and 
limbs in the sacred cause of the Union, merits the warmest thanks and 
acknowledgments. 

It consumed two days in Washington to procure the necessary passes 
and permits to travel in Virginia, as well as to transport our sanitary 



stores. His Excellency, tlie President of the United States, recom- 
mended us to the Secretary of War, who referred us to the Military 
Governor-General of the District, from whom we went to the ofiSce of a 
Quartermaster-General and then to a Colonel's Department, in a different 
direction ; thence to a Colonel's office for passes, &c., somewhere else ; thence 
to a Captain's quarters, at a magnificent distance; then again to a Medical 
Director's Bureau, for permits, &c., a great way oif ; then a long tramp to 
a Chief-of-transportation ; next to a Captain of ambulances in the envi- 
rons, and from the latter to a Master of teams and wagons at the Balti- 
more and Ohio Railroad depot, then to a Captain of steamboat transporta- 
tion on the Potomac River, and lastly, to a Director of Military Railroads. 

At some of these offices, there were dozens of men, all in a row, wait- 
ing their turn for permits, &c. Fortunately for us, the only gentleman 
member of our Association, — all the rest of our members being ladies, — 
had been persuaded to accompany our party, or we never could have gone 
through so many forms and so much exertion. But we must add, that 
from the President down to the teamster, we received the utmost civility 
and a most willing assistance in our undertaking. Indeed, every facility 
in the power of all these Government officials was cheerfully and promptly 
afforded us, and we cannot too highly commend their kind politeness 
towards us. 

We embarked on board a Government steamboat near the Long Bridge, — 
three army wagons, with four mules each, having deposited our goods on 
the dock. A two-horse ambulance, with a careful driver, having also 
been placed by the Government at our disposal, we shipped it likewise on 
board, and we arrived in due time at the old town of Alexandria, Va., 
where the Captain of transportation at that station had been instructed to 
provide us with another ambulance, to carry such goods as we required 
from time to time, to the camps in the interior. Passing the guards, we 
drove out on our first trip, to Fairfax Seminary Hospital, a beautiful 
brick building, in a solitary neighborhood, where we found the eight 
hundred inmates well accommodated, but we saw awfully long rows of 
grave head-boards in a burial ground adjacent. 

The country for twenty miles round Alexandria to the borders of rebel- 
dom, is desolate; not a tree, or bush, or house, or fence to be seen, but 
here and there a huge fortification bristling with heavy cannon. Being- 
informed that there were many sick-camps of tenj;s in various localities 
farther distant, we distributed only one bos of luxuries, and continued on 
until we came to several immense camps, of recruits and convalescents, 
separated a few miles from each other, one containing twelve thousand six 
hundred, another eight thousand, and others with large numbers of invalid 
soldiers or convalescents. Of course, there were plenty of sick in all of 
them. We here distributed the contents of some boxes, and left one pack- 
age with some parties to deal out for us, loitli the resnif, that we afterwards 
determined, for cogent reasons, never again to trust anybody else's hands 
but our own, to distribute our goods on any occasion. 

It is superfluous to add, that the donations were extremely acceptable to 
the sick soldiers, whose surprise at receiving these gifts, was as manifest 
as their gratitude was unbounded. 

Let us explain to some of your readers, why they are so disappointed 



8 

that packages they may have sent to their friends, sometimes do not reach 
their destination. The soldiers are many miles away from civilized life. 
Very rarely any but military persons visit them, few in fact but such as 
are on military business. There is no communication with them, escept 
by a military postman and innumerable army supply wagons No villages 
are within reach. Hence, when packages do reach as far as the seat of 
war, they are perhaps consigned to regiments scattered many miles apart, 
with no regular means of access. Consequently, the address of a box is 
not so minutely investigated as its contents, by those into whose charge it 
happens to fall, and who are craving the comforts of life, of which they 
are now deprived by the war waged to subjugate the rebels. 

The plan of operations we adopted, was to start early in the morning, 
notwithstanding the inclement weather, in one ambulance, with the other 
laden with boxes, and having personally distributed the contents, to return 
to Alexandria in the evening. We occupied so much time on the second 
day's trip, that dark night and a snow-storm suddenly overtook us, and 
the roads being most abominably bad, winding among multitudinous stumps 
of trees, interspersed with several creeks, our drivers proclaimed it to be 
too dangerous to travel back, especially as the rebel General Stuart's cavalry 
had made a raid on the Sunday night week previously across the country 
between where we then were and Alexandria, and on which occasion the 
IT. S. Quartermaster had packed up the immense Government stores, the 
rebels having got within six miles of that town on the day in question ; and 
on the very night before last, they gobbled up thirty of our pickets a little 
further off, at Fairfax Court House. To be candid, we experienced con- 
siderable consternation, being compelled to camp out that night, and thus 
practically test camp life and camp fare. The U. S. Christian Commis- 
sion delegates gallantly vacated in our fiivor their tent, which was fitted up 
with two tiny cots, not overstocked with either feather beds or linen sheets, 
as there were neither, but there was one gray army blanket to each cot. 
It was of no avail to be squeamish of our accommodations, and we felt 
thankful for the Christian feeling of the Commission. The gentlemen 
bunked in a prayer-meeting tent, on boughs of trees spread on the earth. 
\Ye used our empty boxes in lieu of rocking-chairs, and there were soak- 
ing wet sods of the bare ground for a carpet. United States army rations were 
furnished us. Our tent was in the midst of a camp of eleven thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-five soldiers, on a bleak common, in midwinter! 

It was a bitter cold night outside, and even inside our tent, as we peered 
at the pickets pacing their lonely beats. 

After the last drums had tattooed, the only noise in the camp was a ter- 
rible amount of coughing from soldiers in the surrounding tents. Some, 
we fancied, were consumptive coughs in progressive stages ; but we could 
only pity them, as our stock of delicacies for that day was exhausted. The 
great sufferings of so many soldiers may be imagined, and so much were 
the donations appreciated by them, we lamented that we had no more, as 
the demand for them so immeasurably exceeded our supply. 

On the third day's trip we stopped at an extensive camp on the brow of 
a hill. Having a couple of barrels of smoking and chewing tobacco, we 
knocked out the heads with a stone and commenced to give it out by 
handfuls into a few soldiers' caps. In an instant the news spread. Hun- 



9 

dreds of men clambered up the wheels, on the horses' backs, on the pole 
of the wagon, and crammed the inside, to the damage of the ladies' bon- 
nets and dresses. We do not exaggerate when we say, that several thou- 
sand soldiers immediately surrounded us, caps in hand, and all striving hard 
to get at the coveted article. It was impossible to keep any degree of 
order. The wagon was stormed. We were captured by a coirp-de-main 
of tobacco ! 

''Please give me some, kind ladies." 

"This cap, Madam." 

" Uncle Sam has not paid us for two months, and we are dead beat for 
tobacco, ladies." 

"Won't you please give me a plug?" 

A multitude of voices eagerly claimed our attention, although we all 
three of us handed it around as fast as we could. All the soldiers, how- 
ever, were good-humored, laughing and civil, but only too anxious for a 
prize in the lottery of a plug of tobacco. 

Suddenly the horses started, and it was truly surprising none of the sol- 
diers got hurt, as many tumbled off the wagon. Tremendous shouts of 
"three cheers for the ladies," made the welkin ring; whilst many hundreds 
followed us "on the double quick" down the hill, where we stopped and 
handed out the rest of our stock. " Three more cheers and a tiger for the 
ladies of Philadelphia," greeted our departure as we galloped away to 
" Camp Convalescent," where, fearing a repetition of a demand hi/ the 
tJiousa7id for our supplies hi/ (he dozen, we halted about a quarter of a mile 
from the tents. As the rain was pouring down in torrents, and the mud 
about ten inches deep, the ladi-es remained in the ambulance, while our 
gentleman escort walked into the Pennsylvania and New Jersey tents, and 
handed tickets to a few hundred of those whom, from among many thou- 
sands, he selected as most needy and sick, and the recipients then, with- 
out saying anything to their comrades, called on the ladies at the wagon 
for a flannel shirt apiece, expressing abundant thanks to the kind friends, 
and benevolent public of Philadelphia, who so generously donated such 
very acceptable articles. 

In addition to our visits to some of the numerous sick-camps in the field, 
we also visited three out of ten military hospital buildings in Alexandria, 
where the doctors and nurses told us no other lady had ever before called, 
as it is supposed citizens there are of Secession proclivities. In every ward, 
such of the wounded as were able, at once rose up in their beds in astonish- 
ment, at seeing lady visitors ! We were sorry we had only a few boxes 
left for these hospitals. We had some cheese, crackers, dried beef, and 
green apples, which we despatched to some companies of Col. J. K. Mur- 
phy's Twenty-ninth Regiment, P. V., at Fairfax Court House Station, on 
the line of the military railroad. 

In conclusion, our practical experience, derived from our travels in Vir- 
ginia, is : 

First. That there is an immense field for benevolence among the sick 
and wounded and convalescent soldiers, who are counted by tens of thou- 
sands, in tents at the camps in the field in Virginia, many miles away from 
any village, and in localities where ladies are as scarce as negroes, the latter 
having all left these now desolated regions. 



10 

Second. That it is very troublesome to procure in Washington, passes, 
permits, &c., and transportation, and that it is eminently proper for a gen- 
tleman to escort ladies in Virginia at present. 

Third. That it is extremely desirable to distribute everything to the 
soldiers themselves, personally, with one's own hands. 

If the friends of the Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Belief of United 
States would desire us to repeat our journey to the sick and wounded in 
Viroinia, we think the following are suitable donations, at this season of 
the year, namely: tobacco, onions, butter, dried fruit, wines, jellies and 
preserves, fiirina, soap, towels, combs, &c., and particularly linen handker- 
chiefs, woollen stockings, and flannel shirts. 

We shall return home in a few days, so soon as we have made a flying 
visit to the thirty/ thomand sick and wounded soldiers in the forfj/ mili- 
tari/ hospitals in the City of Washington, D. C. 

Respectfully, 

Mary A. Brady, 

President, Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of United States. 
Alexandria, Va., January 14, 1863. 

February 26, 1863. In consequence of the success which attended Mrs. 
Brady's first journey to the army in Virginia, the Ladies' Association ap- 
pointed Mrs. Brady, Mrs. Dobbins, and the Honorary Secretary, to visit 
the sick soldiers at the front of the Array of the Potomac, at Falmouth, 
on the Biver Bappahannock, Virginia; and a report of this second visit 
appeared in the Evening Bulletin of March 10, 1863, as follows : 

Report of a Second Visit of Ladies to the Sick and Wounded Sol- 
diers at the Front of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, 

After an absence of twelve days, we are about to return home from the 
front of the Army of the Potomac, Mrs. M. A. Dobbins and myself having 
distributed personally with our own hands, to the sick and wounded sol- 
diers in the field, the sixty large boxes of delicacies, flannel shirts, &c., 
kindly donated by our friends and the benevolent public generally, to whom 
we express the warmest acknowledgments. 

It consumed a day and a half in Washington to procure passes and trans- 
portation to the front for our sixty packages of sanitary stores, when we 
proceeded by the Government mail steamboat, filled with oificers and pri- 
vates, to Aquia Creek, Va., of course passing the venerated Mount Vernon 
on the way. At the time the rebels vacated the vicinity of Aquia Land- 
ing, they destroyed its few buildings, and the railroad track to Fredericks- 
burg, together with the fortified works at Windmill Point, which com- 
manded that part of the Potomac Biver. A number of frame sheds, to 
protect from the weather vast quantities of military stores, constantly des- 
patched to feed the army, have recently been erected at Aquia, and the 
railroad track has been relaid to Falmouth, the only conveyance to which 
is by cars and trucks adapted to carry heavy freight. We got standing 
room in a freight car, and in an hour or two, after an uncomfortable ride, 
reached the present termination of the railroad at Falmouth Station. 



11 

Many hundreds of soldiers rode outside the cars, or on top of huge piles of 
bales of hay, &c. 

Innumerable camps of regiments and brigades are scattered around for 
many miles in all directions. The cavalry was the most imposing-looking; 
and the infantry were chiefly in shelter tents. Falmouth Station is on high 
ground, and comprises a frame shed, a telegraphic caboose, and a couple of 
frame offices. There are no houses. 

There being but one brick building in sight, we bent our way thither in 
au ambulance, which, by a coincidence, was driven by a wounded Phila- 
delphian, who happened to know us, and as evening was fast approaching, 
we looked rather blank on ascertaining that three rooms were occupied by 
as many large families of Southern refugees, us tlieij call themsclveii, wait- 
ing a pass from Jeff. Davis to go back to his dominions. The other rooms 
were in possession of the lady Secretary of a Ladies' Aid Society of Phila- 
delphia, who permitted us to sit up all night in the kitchen in chaii's, and 
also to boil on her stove our tin kettle, which we had brought with us, 
to^'ether with some eatables, and for all these kindnesses, we were, of course, 
grateful to her. Indeed, we would have been shelterless otherwise, as it 
would have been impossible for us to have reached or communicated on 
that evening with any of the headquarters, or colonels of regiments to whom 
we wtire recommended, as each brigade, division, and corps, is separated 
from the other several miles, and the roads were so bad, we could not sub- 
sequently avail of pressing invitations to a tent at a camp, simply because 
we could not tramp through the deep mire, gullies, &c. 

The building in question is called the " Lacy House," formerly the re- 
sidence of the rebel General LaCy, and is situated on the bluff or bank of 
the River Rappahannock, where our men crossed at the late battle, and 
the large town of Fredericksburg, not much the worse from our cannon- 
ading, lies along the river edge, on the opposite side. We were thus 
quartered within half musket range of the rebels, whose pickets we could 
plainly see walking about among their rifle pits, during the three days 
and nights we were under the roof of the dilapidated Lacy House. 

We distinctly heard the rebel band of music discoursing of an evening, 
and the church clocks striking in Fredericksburg, the river being about 
as wide as the Schuylkill at Market Street bridge. Our soldiers are not 
allowed to converse with the rebs, who often halloo to them, however. If 
the rebs had hred their rifles across, we ladies would have been rather 
unpleasantly near, and their cannon might have disturbed our peaceful 
slumbers in the old arm-chairs. On the night of the day of our depar- 
ture hence, three brigades, consisting of two thousand cavalry of the reb- 
els, made a dashing raid through our 6utside lines, with a view to their 
attempting the destruction of the high trestle bridge across the Potomac 
Creek, between Aquia Landing and Falmouth Station. Our men soon 
drove them back, with many killed and wounded, stopping them about 
eight miles from the bridge, the loss of which latter would have impeded 
the operations of the Union army. 

While we were at the Lacy House, some of our cavalrymen were brought 
there, who had been bruised in the skirmish with the rebel cavalry raid on 
Thursday night, and we ladies assisted to reduce, with Mrs. L. Miller's 



12 

efficacious ointment, the contusions which our men had suffijredj their 
horses having been shot, and fallen or rolled on them. 

The military authorities having kindly placed at our disposal a four- 
mule vpagon and an ambulance, we visited as many brigade and regimen- 
tal sick-tents, — which were designated by little red flags, — as were within 
reasonable reach, and thus we distributed a large portion of the delicacies, 
&c., with which we had been so liberally furnished in Philadelphia. It 
is true, we could have disposed to advantage of a hundred times as many 
more things, if we had had them, but what we had was duly appreciated 
by the recipients. 

So soon as our arrival in the tented field at the front of the army be- 
came known, we were called upon by several colonels of regiments, with 
the tender of a tent in their camps for our accommodation, if we would 
consent to visit their regiments in particular, with our stores. Unfortu- 
nately, our comparatively limited supply being so rapidly disposed of, 
prevented our acceptance of these friendly offers at that time. 

The pickets suffer intensely from exposure to the inclement weather, 
and we sympathized most with them, A little tobacco was a great com- 
fort to them, to wile away weary vigil hours on picket guard. 

The only preference we heard expressed for any general in particular, 
was limited to any general who would lead our brave men to a decisive 
victory ; nor did we hear, throughout all our travels, even the slightest 
murmur of dissatisfaction, except that furloughs to visit their homes were 
granted in too few instances to the private soldiers. 

The idea of colored persons under white officers, to be organized to 
fight the rebels, seemed to be popular, it being remarked, "Why should 
not black blood be spilled as well as white, instead of the blacks loafing 
at home while white men are being shot in a war caused by Slavery ? " 

Little comment was made on emancipation, further than some thought, 
" If there was freedom in the South, the North would be freed from the 
blacks, who naturally prefer to live in the Southern climate, as more con- 
genial to them." 

Everywhere all our soldiers were in excellent spirits, and anxious to 
whip the rebels. 

Returning from the front to Aquia Landing, we were compelled to 
stay there a night, as the boat only runs once a day, and we received 
much kind politeness from Dr. Curling, in charge of the U. S. Sanitary 
Commission agency, who entertained us with a cup of tea, and both supper 
and breakfast, and whose influence secured us a vacant dry shed, with a 
new cot and clean straw mattress, or we ladies would otherwise have been 
shelterless on that occasion. 

From Washington, we procured permits, &c., to revisit Camp Conva- 
lescent and the hospitals at Alexandria, dividing the remainder of our 
stores among the sick in the.se two places. 

If the region of country denuded of trees at the front, where the Army 
of the Potomac is encamped, is desolate, and the roads bad, so the roads 
near Camp Convalescent are worse. At some places, we feared our teams 
could not extricate themselves or our army vehicles, especially on the last 
night of our return from the latter to the hotel at Alexandria. The 



13 

weather, too, was disagreeable, with hail and bleak wind. Neither of our 
party of ladies, however, fainted ! 

Cauip Convalescent is far better provided at present than on the occa- 
sion of our first visit, two months ae;o, and there are now several frame 
barracks, one story high, just completed, for the use of the sick. The 
rush there for such articles as tobacco, flannel shirts, &c., was so great, we 
were compelled to suspend our distribution until protected by a color 
guard, which the oflScer of the day was good enough to detail for us. 
Apples, onions, lemons, &c., we handed to each convalescent soldier inside 
the frame buildings, the men "forming a line" in every ward. There 
were cries for " more," after our stock became exhausted. 

What we had was a mere nothing among so many, many thousands, but 
we discriminated as well as we could, by selecting those who appeared 
more weakly, or most in need. We met Philadelphians pat^sim. 

We return home much fatigued after such hard travelling, and again 
tender our best thanks, on behalf of our brave, sick soldiers, to St. Mat- 
thias Aid Society, Independent Aid Society, Yardleyville Aid Society, 
H-addonfield Aid Society, and the numerous other Ladies' Aid Societies, 
and a generous public, who so kindly facilitated the object of Mrs. Dob- 
bins and myself with donations of luxuries, &c. 

Respectfully, 

Mary A. Brady, 

President Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of U. S. 
Falmouth, Va., March 10, 186.3. 

May 15, 1863. The Ladies' Avssociation again sent Mrs. Brady, Mrs. 
Dobbins, and the Honorary Secretary, on a third visit, to attend to the 
wounded Union soldiers after the second battle of Fredericksburg, and 
they accordingly proceeded to the Sixth Corps Hospital Tents at Potomac 
Creek Bridge, Virginia, and a report of their proceedings is copied from 
the Evening Bulletin of June 1, 1863, as follows : 

Report of a Third Visit of Ladies to the Wounded Soldiers at the 
Front of the Army of the Potomac, Virginia. 

Leaving Philadelphia on May 15, 1863, accompanied by two members 
of our "Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of U. S.," we were occu- 
pied the next day in Washington in procuring " passes " for ourselves to 
Falmouth, on the River Rappahannock, Virginia, and in obtaining trans- 
portation for forty-five packages of sanitary stores, wbich had been donated 
to us for the benefit of the brave soldiers who were wounded at the recent 
(second) battle at Fredericksburg Heights; since when positive orders 
have been issued by the U. S. War Department, to exclude any visitors 
from the army, especially ladies. In fact, all ladies are now, as a general 
rule, precluded from visiting the front of the Army of the Potomac, and 
only a few and influential gentlemen, who have wounded relatives, can 
obtain " passes." 

It is, therefore, extremely diflicult for any male citizen, and almost 
impossible for any ladies to visit the army at present. We hope, however, 
these stringent regulations will soon be somewhat relaxed. A refusal to 



14 

permit stores or boxes of any kind to go forward, would seem justifiable, 
on account of the gross abuses which sometimes prevailed, by the surrep- 
titious conveyance of whiskey, and all sorts of deleterious articles, under 
pretence of donations for the sick. Hence the reluctance of both the 
military and medical authorities of the Government to make any discrim- 
ination. Luckily, as I am personally recognized at the various depart- 
ments, both at Washington and at the headquarters of the army, we 
were soon favored with the requisite "passes," &c., and early the fol- 
lowing (Sunday) morning, we were steaming away on the Potomac River, 
in a Government steamboat, filled with a vast quantity of food and ammu- 
nition, passing Mount Vernon and Fort Washington, to Aquia Creek 
Landing, Virginia. 

Thence, standing in one of the huge freight cars, we roughed our way 
by the Falmouth Kailroad to Potomac Creek I^ridge Station, and walking 
about a mile southwardly, we reached the Sixth Army Corps Hospital 
Tents, to which we attached ourselves. Reporting to the surgeon in 
charge of the corps, we were welcomed by him, as well as by the division, 
brigade, and ward doctors respectively, of the three divisions, comprising 
the Sixth Corps Hospital Tents, containing about two thousand men, all 
wounded in the second battle of Fredericksburg. There being no other 
ladies ofiicially attached to the Army of the Potomac, we look upon our- 
selves as "ajii-st family of Virginia," although a few miles ofi" one of the 
Washington family, his wife and two daughters, are still flourishing on 
their own ancient domain, on the sacred soil of the Old Dominion, as well 
as a family of "white trash," a mile or two beyond. We brought along 
with us from Philadelphia our own rations and tents, three stretchers to 
sleep on, and a couple of cooking stoves, with utensils. A squad of con- 
valescent wounded men soon fixed up our tents, and brought us some 
kindling wood and water. The lieutenant of the fatigue company of the 
Sixth Corps chopped down young fir trees, and planted them as a fence, 
inclosing our quarters, which were selected just on the outside of the lines 
of the hospital, between the three divisions or villages of tents. There 
is only one small frame dwelling within a circle of five miles. Two 
" orderlies " were detailed by the surgeon in charge of the corps to attend 
to our stove fires, &c., and to be generally useful. 

We have one sleeping-room tent, and two store-room tents, containing 
our supply of material to make delicacies, &c., for the wounded soldiers, 
the empty boxes being piled up in tiers around three sides of these tents, 
in lieu of shelves. Two fly tents, having the sides tucked up, form our 
airy kitchens, where we forthwith commenced, and still continue daily to 
cook custard, gelatine, blanc-mange, puddings, milk punch, and whatever 
" requisitions " are made upon us by the division surgeons, whose confi- 
dence we have already gained by our adopting an inflexible rule, like the 
laws of the Modes and Persians, " which altereth not," never to give 
away anything \Yhatever outside of the hospital tents, and only inside 
them with the approbation of the brigade or ward doctors, who are of 
course the proper judges of what particular articles are desirable or other- 
wise for their patients. 

The men are wounded in every conceivable manner, and seem to be 
happy to be waited upon by ladies, as it reminds them of " home," they say. 



15 

Only the slightly wounded were forwarded to Washington and the North- 
ern City Military Hospitals. The ward male nurses call at our tents three 
times a day, from eacli of the three divisions of the Sixth Corps, to carry 
the luxuries we have prepared, and we hand them around ourselves, under 
the supervision of the doctors, who express themselves much pleased at 
our assistance, and we sj^eak cheerful and soofhiruj ivorih fo the icovnded 
patriots, who are evidently gratified at our presence. Indeed, we flatter 
ourselves we are doing a great deal of good. 

Our original supply of forty-five packages being exhausted, we have 
since been liberally provided with thirty-nine boxes more of suitable arti- 
cles from the friends of the Ladies' Association in Philadelphia, and 
which will last about another week or two. My companions, Mrs. Dob- 
bins and Miss E. C. Matlack, unite with me in urgently suggesting to the 
churches and the benevolent public, to furnish us with further contribu- 
tions of money or stores, to enable us to remain here, and thus to continue 
our good work. It would prove a disappointment to the doctors, and 
most particularly to so many suff'ering, wounded soldiers, if our voluntary 
ai>d gratuitous efforts should cease for want of timely support from the 
City of Brotherly Love and elsewhere. 

Mrs. S. R. Chase will relieve me here, while I visit my fiimily at home 
for a few days, and we shall be grateful, on behalf of the mutilated 
defenders of the Union, of the Sixth Corps, for a continued assistance 
from week to week regularly of sanitary supplies, during our stay at 
the hospitals in the field in Virginia., 

Fifty dozen cans of condensed milk, one hundred dozen fresh eggs, 
thirty boxes of lemons, ten boxes of oranges, one hundred and fifty pounds 
of white pulverized sugar, two hundred jars of jellies and jams, and 
twelve dozen best sherry wines are needed immediately. Everything is 
loanted. Some linen rags, towels, and cologne scent were asked for. Our 
stock of red and gray flannel shirts, woollen socks, slippers, and linen 
handkerchiefs, dried fruit, preserves, and tobacco were exhausted during 
the first three days after our arrival here. Many hundreds of badly 
wounded suiferers would be thankful to numerous Ladies' Aid Societies 
at home who would be kind enough to send us some small " limb pillows," 
of difiierent sizes. 

Condensed milk, fresh eggs, white sugar, jellies and jams, wines, lemons, 
linen, and tobacco, are articles we use most, and are constantly needed, 
and any donation of whatsoever kind, will be thankfully acknowledged, if 
sent to the ofiice of Edward Brady, Attorney-at-law, Honorary Secretary, 
No. 135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia. Governor Curtin furnishes us 
freight for goods to Washington, and thcr Government will order transpor- 
tation to Virginia, on application by us. 

The only chance of purchasing any goods here is from a sutler from one 
of the neighboring regiments on the hills, from whom can be bought semi- 
occasionally tub-butter at one dollar a pound, small lemons eighty-five cents 
a dozen, eggs seventy-five cents a dozen, including a proportion of bad. 
Whiskey, ^' contraband of war," is three dollars a pint, short measure, 
warranted to kill at forty yards, and one month's imprisonment in the 
guard-house. These are treble the present prices at home. 

The country from Aquia Creek Landing to Major-General Hooker's 



16 • 

Headquarters, situated five miles beyond Falmouth, consists of innumera- 
ble small steep bills, thrown together higgledy piggledy, with gullies in all 
directions. Regular roads there are none. Almost all the forests have 
been cut down, and apologies for roads twine round the stumps of trees. 
An exception is the Potomac Creek Valley, where we are located, a charm- 
ing spot, and we are not at all surprised that the several thousand wounded 
soldiers now in the vicinity will remain here all the summer. The air 
is invigorating, and the hospital tents clean and comfortable. Moreover, 
there are no friends whose mistaken kindness will smuggle whiskey or 
bilious-looking cakes, &c. The doctors are always attentive to their pa- 
tients, whose removal to a distance might be fatal. The men are all hope- 
ful, and the nurses are convalescent wounded soldiers, who can feel for 
their sick comrades. This latter point is peculiar, and highly beneficial to 
the wounded. I repeat, for the satisfaction of their friends at home, that 
all the wounded in the field are cheerful and hopeful, and not a murmur is 
heard. They are aware the Government is doing all in its power to alle- 
viate their pains and ameliorate their condition. They are recovering as 
fast as can reasonably be expected. 

From this valley towards the River Rappahannock, opposite Fredericks- 
burg, there are three miles of corduroy road, winding over a score of small 
hills and dales. It is made by placing two rows of' trees lengthways, and 
filling up crossways with thousands of trees laid close together, but which 
being of different sizes and shapes, and some getting broken or displaced, 
verily renders "Jordan a hard road to travel." I would respectfully 
recommend the Northern dyspeptic sympathizers with the South to try a 
jaunt over the corduroy road in question, with the addition of dried peas 
in their shoes, down a declivity on a curve, and over a gully, together with 
a couple of miles among the stumps of trees. These stay-at-homes would, 
perhaps, not grumble so much afterwards, nor wonder why the army is not 
all the time on the move. Imagine the anguish of our brave wounded, all 
of whom travelled over this very road five miles from the late battle-field 
at Fredericksburg Heights. Hark ! It is a dismal sound of a mufl3ed 
drum and fife, as solemnly and sadly they bear a dead patriot to the graves 
of the Sixth Corps Hospital, half a mile on our right. A Christian Com- 
mission delegate reads and prays. Hark again I It is the dead march in 
Saul, and a brave soldier of the Third Corps Hospital on our left has gone 
where the weary are at rest, followed by some wounded companions in the 
battle. A Christian Commission delegate exhorts and prays. Hark once 
more ! Three volleys from a corporal's guard tell the mournful tale of 
another victim of this wicked rebellion, from the Second Corps Hospital on 
the hillside beyond. A Christian Commission delegate preaches and prays. 

The compliments of the Surgeon-in-chief of the First Division to Mrs. 
Brady, and he will be glad of one hundred and thirty custards and seventy 
jellies for Wards B and D. The Surgeon-in-chief of Second Division re- 
quests some lemonade and tobacco for Wards A and C. The Third Di- 
vision Surgeon-in-chief wishes five buckets of milk punch, and some stewed 
fruit for Wards E and F. The Doctor of First Brigade, Second Division, 
is desirous of some linen rags, sponge, and patent sheet lint. The Doctor 
of Third Brigade, First Division, wishes some port or sherry wines, and 
best brandy, for several wounded men who are very low. The Second 



17 

Brigade, Third Division Doctor, asks for baked rice puddings and custards. 
And so forth and so on, we being all day busy as bees, from " reveille" at 
five o'clock in the morning, until " tattoo" at nine o'clock in the evening. 
One of the ladies from any of the Ladies' Aid Societies, who have facili- 
tated us upon this and former occasions with donations of money or stores, 
and who desires to assist us here at Potomac Creek Bridge, Virginia, can 
please call at the office of the Ladies' Association, Philadelphia. 

" Whip-poor-will !" We are awakened by the soft cry of these all-the- 
night- wide-awake birds. '' Fire ! fire !" We are awakened by the blaze of 
signal lights in the front, reflected through our canvas tent. The moon 
shines as bright as day, and a balloon is up on a reeonnoissance of rebel- 
dom. " Toot ! toot 1" We awake in the middle of the night by bugles 
calling ten thousand cavalry, encamped in a woods at our rear, to make a 
successful raid in force into Secessia, or by the rumbling of some batteries 
of flying artillery, or by the galloping of aides-de-camp, who ride swiftly to 
order the Third Corps Infantry to march, or the pontoons to be moved. 

-Cases of individual bravery are quite common, and well authenticated 
by thousands of eye-witnesses. For instance, as it was related to us, D. C. 
Brennan, formerly a captain of a company in Colonel J. T. Owens's Twenty- 
fourth Regiment Per>nsylvania Volunteers, three months' men, now a pri- 
vate in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, Second Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, commanded by 
General Hancock, was said to be the only man unwoundedout of a platoon 
who rushed up to the third range of heights at Fredericksburg, in face of 
a rebel battery, vomiting grape and canister shot, and he then guided a 
captured cannon mounted on w^els down the hill, every man and horse 
of the rebel battery having been either killed or wounded. 

The General and men cheered this heroic act. Surely such men as 
Brennan, — and there are plenty of them in every corps, — should be en- 
couraged by the Government by promotion to a shoulder-strap, there 
being, unfortunately, by reason of the vicissitudes and casualties of the 
war, an abundance of vacancies. (He has since received a commission.) 

Most of the soldiers engaged in the late battle lost their entire personal 
efi'ects, and many of the wounded are consequently without money. It is 
a very remarkable and undeniable foct, that there was and is always, we 
are informed, less wounded and less killed amongst those corps who boldly 
advanced to the enemy, than among the Eleventh Corps, who were com- 
pelled by the exigencies of the battle to retrograde. 

Sometimes of an evening our Sixth Corps Hospital is enlivened by the 
melody of the excellent band of the Third Regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry. 
Every evening we hear beautiful music resounding from the hilltops at 
headquarters of the Sixth Corps, under command of General Sedgwick, 
who is a pleasant gentleman, and who looks every inch a soldier, and whose 
total freedom from afiectation renders him a favorite. Let me allude like- 
wise, from an experience derived from personal observation, to the United 
States Christian Commission, who are located in each of all the corps of 
our armies throughout the United States, and who attend to both the body 
and the soul. Their never-ceasing efl'orts are most effectual, and, with- 
out ostentation, they go about doing good everywhere. Although not per- 
sonally acquainted with any of these gentlemen, we are informed they labor, 



18 

like ourselves, without salary, and voluntarily, and we fervently trust the 
numerous friends of the Christian Commission will continue to render 
them a hearty support. 

Assistant Adjutant-General Birney, of the Third Division, Sixth Corps, 
lent us an ambulance one day to take a peep at the rebs on the other side 
of Joi'dan. Being distant only a hundred yards, we could easily dis- 
tinguish such of the rebs who wore United States uniforms, from their 
usual butternut color. Colonel Gr. L. Prescott, Thirty-second Regiment 
Massachusetts Volunteers, frequently favored us with polite attentions. 
(This exemplary gentleman was subsequently killed in battle.) 

At the lower end of the Potomac Valley there is a long level plain 
between the hills, and on the east side a wide course for a mile, and 
we surmise that if President Lincoln thinks that our Uncle Samuel does 
not possess any race-horses, or that some contractors for horses do not 
rapidly grow fat, we respectfully differ in opinion with his Excellency, 
and we would refer him to the fine race-ground just mentioned, where, at 
all hours during the present broiling heat, colored individuals are exer- 
cising Uncle Sam's quadrupeds with the utmost vigor, rendering it slightly 
difficult to determine which is the brute, the colored individual or the 
horse. We would also delicately hint at the offensive odor from dead ani- 
mals remaining unburied, which have died from exhaustion, throughout 
the whole region of country occupied by the Army of the Potomac. 

We propose to stay here during as many weeks hence as our resources 
of stores will admit. In the meantime, inquiries as to the condition of 
wounded relatives can be addressed to me at No. 135 South Fifth Street, 
Philadelphia, stating the brigade, division and corps numbers. 

Respectfully, 

Mary A. Brady, 

Potomac Creek Bridge, Va., President of the Ladies' Association for 

June 1, 1863. Soldiers' Relief of United States. 

July 6, 1863. The following letter from His Excellency, Governor 

Curtin, was published iu the local columns of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 

Press, and North American. 

Executive Chamber, Haerisburg, Pa., 
July 6, 1863. 

Mrs. Mary A. Brady, 

President Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of U. S., Philadelphia. 
Madam : I take much pleasure in signifying my appreciation of the 
voluntary and gratuitous efforts of yourself, and the ladies associated with 
you, to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and wounded soldiers of the 
Army of the Potomac, and my confidence that the success which has 
hitherto attended your benevolent enterprise, will encourage you to perse- 
vere in your mission of mercy. 

I commend your Association to the kind offices of the military and 
medical authorities of the United States Army, and trust they may find it 
consistent with the interests of the service, to facilitate the accomplish- 
ment of the objects of the Ladies' Association. 

I have the honor to remain. Madam, 

Very respectfully yours, 

A. G. Curtin. 

Governor of Pennsylvania. 



19 

July 10, 1863. A fourth trip to assist the wounded Union soldiers of 
the Third Corps Hospital Tents in the Field, was made by Mrs. Brady, 
Mrs. Dobbins, Mrs. S. R. Chase, and the Honorary Secretary, to Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania, shortly after the sanguinary conflict there with the 
rebels. A report of this visit to the battle-field is copied from the Even- 
ing Bulletin of July 23, 1863, as follows : 

Report of a Fourth Visit of Ladies to the Wounded Soldiers at the 
Front of the Army of the Potomac, near Gettysburg-, Pennsylvania. 

On the morning of the 10th of July, inst., we left Philadelphia for 
Baltimore, Md., which city being under martial law, permits to pass be- 
yond its corporate confines are required, so we called at the ofiice of the 
Provost Marshal there, who immediately, on becoming aware of the nature 
of our mission to the late battle-field near Gettysburg, Pa., ordered the re- 
quisite documents without exacting from us the customary oath of alle- 
giance, which the Colonel evidently deemed a surplusage in our case. 

We were provided by the State of Pennsylvania with transportation by 
railroad, and Mr. J. M. Drill, the General Agent of the Northern Central 
Railroad Company, a's well as Mr. W.J. Benson, of the Philadelphia, Wil- 
mington, and Baltimore Railroad Company, afforded us prompt assist- 
ance, enabling us to get our fifty-three boxes of sanitary stores transferred 
from one depot to another with despatch, to be in time for the evening 
cars. The iron horse screamed and ran, now through thick shaded woods, 
anon thi'ough fields of ripened ^rain, waiting the harvester's sickle, the re- 
cent invasion by the rebels having caused the reapers to leave for parts 
unknown ; now traversing green meadows, innocent of cows, for the reason 
just mentioned; then skimming rivulets and brooks, whose bridges, lately 
burnt by the ruthless rebel foe, had, a day or two previously, been re- 
erected ; now skirting around the hills, then winding along the banks of 
the Little Gunpowder River, roaring, dashing, tearing, striving, dragging, 
rushing, darting, driving, crashing, and panting, occasionally quenching 
its thirst by copious drinks from tankards on the wayside, the exhausted 
steam animal would not drag us farther, but stopped to recuperate by a 
long breath during the night at Parktown, a city comprising one solitary 
house with a store, and a railroad station platform, although some more 
improvements had just been improvised in the shape of a stockade, ia 
which a company of soldiers were bivouacked. 

The next morning we jogged on to Hanover Junction, where we met a 
couple of trains of freight cars containing nine hundred of our brave 
wounded patriots on their way to Northern hospitals from Gettysburg. 
Here some Union ladies from Baltimore had stationed themselves to re- 
fresh and sustain with*Port wine negus, lemonade, cakes, &c., the weary 
wounded, who daily pass along the railroad in large numbers. All the 
slightly wounded in the late battles are being removed to the North as 
fast as possible. 

Proceeding on a few miles, the train stopped and remained all day await- 
ing orders, and as the dirty freight cars in which we sojourned, were full 
of ladies and gentlemen going to the battle-field to seek dead or dying re- 
latives, and there being no water nor any house near us, we were all pretty 



20 

well used up by the broiling sun. A mischievous rumor was here started 
in the interval, to the effect that the rebel General Beaui-egard, had just 
appeared with forty thousand men close to Gettysburg, and therefore, the 
train would have to take the back track, or wait until more definite news 
arrived, our engineer having been captured as a prisoner of war on two previ- 
ous occasions, and did not relish either rebel fare or work. A map of the 
surrounding country was exhibited by a gentleman, a sympathizer with the 
South, from Maryland, explaining how exceedingly probable such a move- 
ment was, by a detachment from General R. E. Lee's Army of Virginia ! 
A few passengers now suddenly found themselves unable to withstand the 
fatigue of so much delay, and not being in the least influenced by the 
above Secesh report, walked back to the last station ! Finally, we went on 
as far as Hanover, about dusk, and remaining at that quaint old town that 
night, we arrived at last in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. 

We alighted from the cars at the corner of the Main or High Street, 
commonly called Market Street, I suppose, in country towns, at the edge 
of an immense pile of muskets, bayonets, ramrods, belts, cartridge-boxes, 
&c., all thrown promiscuously together j another similarly large pile lay at 
the further end where the cars stopped. Union and rebel implements for 
destruction of human life were mingled together, and on some the blood 
of the former owners still clotted, notwithstanding the rain. 

A stranger had pulled at the butt of a French carbine in the tangled 
mass of small arms, and the trigger of another being thus moved, its con- 
tents, consisting of a rebel Minie ball and three buckshot, were discharged 
into his side, killing him almost instantly, many of the muskets gathered 
up from the field of battle being found loaded. 

At the corner of the streets, also, a number of brass Napoleons, big 
guns, lay passive on the spot where they had been last fired. A howitzer 
still loaded with powder and shell, had received from a rebel Whitworth 
piece a round shot, which had struck so exactly the niouth of the former as 
to penetrate it a couple of inches, and it stuck so fast, the calibre of the 
projectile being a tight fit or squeeze, the dangerous experiment will have 
to be resorted to, of firing it off to eject its bold invader. 

The present miserable appearance of the town of Gettysburg is quite 
striking. Every large house, school, chapel, or other building, is filled 
to repletion with both Union and rebel wounded soldiers, and several 
ladies from diflPerent State Soldiers' Relief Societies were there in attend- 
ance on the wounded from the recent three days' battles. 

We ^on became well aware that the greatest preponderance of the suf- 
fering men were at the different corps hospital tents in the fields in the 
vicinity of the battle-ground, commencing about three miles to seven miles 
out from the town, and where there was great need of help. 

The facilities placed at our disposal by the State of Pennsylvania, enabled 
us to transport our fifty-three boxes, with ourselves on .top, in the wagons 
of three U. S. Government teams of six mules each, it being quite im- 
possible to obtain any easier or pleasanter mode of riding, the rebels having 
carried off into Secessia or destroyed every private conveyance of what- 
soever kind. Passing the Cemetery, the scene of a portion of the conflict 
and carnage, located about a mile from Gettysburg, where the living never 
supposed, when they buried beloved husbands, wives, or children, that the 



21 

dead would ever be ploughed up by ponderous sbot or exploding; shell, 
fired by the evil passions of men engaged in this bitter civil war, we 
turned off on the right of White House Chapel, about five miles distant 
from the town, down a by-road, hub-deep with mud, with the air redolent 
with a loud perfume from deceased horses uninterred, and reported our- 
selves to the surgeon in charge of the three divisions of the Third Corps 
Hospital, on the border of a wood. In all directions the fields are dotted 
with the graves of soldiers, who are buried where they happened to fall. 
Our tent and stove were soon fixed, and our stores of delicacies, &c., un- 
packed by a score of volunteer convalescent wounded. Soon we were 
warmly welcomed by the surgeon in charge and by the division and brigade 
doctors, and "requisitions" for all sorts of articles quickly pour in upon us. 

During the evening we made a flying visit, or a reconnoissance in force, 
as " we say in the army," to the numerous rows of hospital tents, and satis- 
fied ourselves at a glance that there was an abundant opportunity for our 
services, and we were continually greeted with expressions from the brave 
wounded, such as, " To see the face of a lady does us good, madam •;" " We 
are very glad you are come." " You cheer us up, Mrs. Brady." 

All the facilities in the power of the respective surgeons are readily ex- 
tended to us, but we always endeavor to occupy their attention as little as 
possible. On no previous occasion have we met with doctors in the army 
more efiicieut or attentive to the wants and trials of the wounded soldiers 
than here. An army, after a long march, suddenly engaging in a sangui- 
nary battle, cannot possibly possess many conveniences for the wounded, 
so there necessarily was at Jir^, a want of various articles adapted to the 
comfort of so many wounded ; out a soldier knows this must be so, and in 
a measure he becomes inured to it. We were not in the least surprised, 
therefore, that every wounded man throughout the entire hospital tents 
was patient and hopeful ; there is no sign of complaining. 

I happened to remark how grateful we stay-at-homes at the North ought 
to feel towards the brave hearts who fought so gallantly for us, and who 
drove back the rebel hordes from approaching Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 
Washington, which places were certainly in jeopardy, when simultaneously, 
a chorus of voices would exclaim : " Why, Mrs. Brady, we would all have 
died to the very last man on the battle-field here, before we would have let 
the Confederates win or move on to Philadelphia." 

I have invariably considered it a wise maxim " not to make too light of 
our enemies," and it is an undeniable fact that the rebels fight like infuri- 
ated demons, and with skill and unity. Hence the courage of our own 
Union patriots is the more apparent, and cannot be too much commended 
or appreciated. It is impossible, I think, to limit our gratitude towards 
those who have sacrificed their health and limbs for us, and for our country. 
The efforts, therefore, of myself, my companions, Mrs. 2^. A. Dobbins and 
Mrs. R. Gr. Chase, and the other ladies who have gathered around me, are 
not only purely gratuitous and wholly voluntary on our part, but we devote 
ourselves to ameliorate the condition of the Army of the Potomac as a labor 
of love, and we reap our reward in the belief that we are doing some good, 
and particularly in the assurances that "the boys" appreciate our exertions. 

It is, perhaps, superfluous to remark, that no lady connected with our 
Ladies' Association has ever received a dollar of pay or allowance, either 



22 

from the State of Pennsylvania or from the Government of the United 
States, or from any other source ; and our Honorary Secretary gets no 
salary, nor does he even charge us office rent. My heart is devoted to 
support the land of the brave and the home of the free, — our glorious Union 
and country. Fervently do I trust, that ere long, when this cruel war is 
over and the occupation of Mexico by France will thereafter cease, our 
brave old flag will float pver this entire Continent, and peace and prosperity 
again shall bless us, and that we may come out of the present ordeal a 
united and a better people. 

In describing travels, or occurrences, some historians are apt to favor the 
authorities in power, by concealing untoward circumstances, or by extolling 
such as may resound to their praise. Others have a knack to magnify little 
faults into magnificent proportions, and to glide over great excellencies with 
small notice. Some seem to enjoy a chance of finding faults, although 
they really have to plod hard to find them. For my part, judging from 
actual experience and frequent observation, I am quite satisfied the Gro- 
vernment does everything it can do, for the benefit of the soldier. No 
doubt, occasionally, one meets with a vain or an ignorant officer, and per- 
adventure there exists a Medical Director, who desires that no ladies shall 
ever visit the army hospitals in the field. There is no case without an ex- 
ception, and if such is so, I will venture to make an exception to my own 
rule, " never to find fault." It is this : we understand there were twelve 
thousand Union men, wounded in every conceivable manner and form, 
lying here in shelter tents on the bare, wet ground, almost within sight of 
a dozen times as many thousands of sheaves of wheat straw, garnered or 
Tingarnered. Bearing in mind the continued heavy rains since the late 
battle, I am of opinion the Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac 
in the field ought to have seized, on the plea of a military necessity, an 
abundant supply of the straw, whether the farmers liked it not, rather 
than let our gallant wounded boys remain on the bare, soaking, wet ground. 

Sometimes the surface of the cool, moist earth is said to be a favorable 
position for amputated cases, or bad wounds. 

Our tent is adjacent to a long row of tents, occupied exclusively by am- 
putated cases, and soon after we had retired to sleep on the first night of 
our arrival in camp, Mrs. Dobbins and Mrs. Chase inquired " what that 
noise was?" "Perhaps," replied I, " it was only the rippling waters of yon- 
der stream, caused by the incessant rains. It was there that several rebels, 
wounded, unable to help themselves, were drowned by the flood which 
occurred, as usual, immediately after the battle." 

However, we arose at midnight from our couch, and visited the ampu- 
tated men, with a view to soothe them, endeavoring to alleviate their 
sufiierings so far as was in our ability, propping up their mutilated bodies 
with feather "limb pillows," kindly donated to us by the members of St. 
Matthias P. E. Church, and by the young ladies of Zion Lutheran Cburch. 
Philadelphia, and by cooking for them on our stove some delicacies. 
Strange to say, all the wounded men enjoyed some " fine-cut" tobacco, al- 
most as much as any article we had. As a matter of course, the ward 
doctors were always about, dressing wound after wound, without ceasing ; 
nor were the other doctors absent. " Nurse ! be sure and send for me at 



23 

any hour of the night whenever wanted," was the constant order from all 
the doctors without exception. 

Frequently I am the confidante of dying warriors : " Shed no tears for 
me." "Say to my mother, I shall feel no pain in the grave." "I have fought 
the good fight." " Tell my brothers and sisters to meet me in heaven." 

It was still raining hard in the " sma' wee hours" of the night, or rather 
morning, when on passing a street of other tents we heard some groans, 
and groping our way in the darkness, we shortly found ourselves very 
gently rubbing away the pain from the feet of some, and bathing the feet 
of others, speaking cheerful worda to them all, and which latter we believe 
" to do good like a medicine." But we had to stand out in the wet, wear- 
ing hoods and gum boots, as the shelter tents are only a few feet high in 
the middle or apex, sloping down to the damp ground at the sides, and 
scarcely the length of a man. In the daytime we cook custards, gelatine, 
&c., green tea by the bucket full, chocolate, milk-toast, arrow-root, rice 
puddings, beef tea, and fill numerous requisitions for all sorts of things, and 
personally distribute our miscellaneous stores, from time to time, to the men 
themselves, with our own hands, conversing cheerfully with the patients. 
Thus we spend our nights as well as days. 

Individual acts of benevolence are common as flies in summer. For in- 
stance, Mr. F. Gutekunst, the eminent photographer, unasked, and, as he 
thought, unseen, liberally relieved the distress of a broken-hearted widow 
seeking the remains of her deceased husband ; but she had exhausted her 
limited means, and would otherwise have been debarred the sad consolation 
of removing the body of her husband to be buried in consecrated ground, 
amidst his kith and kin, in th^City of Brotherly Love. 

His Excellency, Governor A. G. Curtin, kindly favored us with a call 
at our tent on the battle-field, and was profuse with acknowledgments to us 
for our voluntary and gratuitous labors on behalf of the noble wounded. 

In what other State has any Governor exhibited so much interest, or 
personally attended to the wants of the brave soldiers in their distress, so 
much as our own worthy Governor ? His exertions have been uniform 
and untiring. No wonder, therefore, that the people of the State of Penn- 
sylvania are determined to re-elect him their Commander-in-chief, nor 
could they do better, we opine. He is a patriot, indeed. 

Hon. Miss D. L. Dix, whose philanthropy is so widely known, also came 
and expressed her sympathy and good wishes towards us. 

Hon. George H. Stuart also called at our tent, and directed Mr. F. G. 
Shearer, the efficient superintendent of United States Christian Commis- 
sion, to furnish us daily with a supply of any articles of which our stock 
was exhausted. The record of Mr. Stuart's good deeds being everywhere, 
any praise from us of this pious gentleman would be a supererogation. 

The Rev. R. G. Chase, of St. Matthias Church, Philadelphia, also spent 
a few days at our tents, daily visiting the poor in spirit, and the needy in 
grace, administering the wine of hope in Jesus, and the oil of salvation 
in Christ, to many and many a repentant soul, preaching the Holy Gospel, 
and singing praises to Him who giveth and yet taketh away; encouraging 
the timid, and confirming the strong in faith in our Lord ; reciting the for- 
giveness of sin through Jesus Christ, with the assurances of everlasting joy 
to those who believe in the Saviour, Who bled for us, that we might be 



24 

saved, and Who is the resurrection and the life forever and ever. The 
chaplains are indefatigable in praying with and exhorting so large a flock, 
and are truly most Christian gentlemen, admirably suited to their sacred 
calling. Keligious services were held in our tent by Mr. Chase every 
evening, assisted by the chaplains, and cordially joined in by the con- 
valescent soldiers. 

Mrs. H. Carlisle and Mrs. J. Monroe also arrived here to assist us, and 
were relieved by Mrs. C. Sullender and Miss E. C. Matlack. 

Our friends in Philadelphia have forwarded to us, since our arrival on 
the battle-field, several consignments of sanitary stores, comprising forty- 
two packages, including two barrels of stimulants ; and the three "order- 
lies'' detailed by the surgeon in charge of the corps to help us, are kept 
busy at all hours by us. 

We have the pleasure to acknowledge the kind politeness of the wounded 
men of the Eighth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, in presenting to me, 
a rebel Lieutenant's sword, and a rebel General's star, captured by this 
gallant regiment at the recent battle of Gettysburg, Pa. 

It would fill a volume to enumerate the names of our friends, and of the 
benevolent public, through whose bountiful aid and generous assistance we 
have been heretofore so liberally sustained in our self-imposed task to help 
the sick and wounded in the field. 

Sufiice it to say, that to the difi'erent churches, the Ladies' Aid Socie- 
ties, and all of our friends generally, we feel most grateful, and we re- 
spectfully solicit further donations and contributions of money or suitable 
articles, to be sefit to the President or Treasurer of the Ladies' Associa- 
tion for Soldiers' Relief of United States, at the office of Edward Brady, 
Attorney-at-law, Honorary Secretary, No. 135 South Fifth Street, or to 
my own residence. No. 406 South Forty-first Street, West Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania. 

In conclusion, we must not fail to remember to thank the Philadelphia 
newspapers, the Press, Ledger, Inquirer, BuUetin, News, and North Ameri- 
can, for the notices of our Ladies' Association, which they have so often 
inserted for us in their local items respectively, and particularly the 
Evening BuUetin, whose courtesy extended its columns for the insertion 
of our various reports in full. 

Respectfully, 

Mary A. Brady, 

Gettysbtjrg, Pa., President of the Ladies" Association for 

■ July 28, 1863. Soldiers' Relief of United States. 

As these four special reports narrate respectively the usefulness of the 
voluntary and gratuitous labors of the prominent members of the Ladies' 
Association during the first year of their organization, it is perhaps super- 
fluous to add here anything farther, than that the ladies have enlisted 
" for three years, or the war/' and they therefore respectfully solicit a con- 
tinued support from a patriotic public, on behalf of our noble army of 
martyrs, until this cruel war is over, and the Union be re-established in its 
pristine glory, with freedom to all the inhabitants thereof. 

To avoid mistakes, however, it is especially requested that no money or 
goods be given to any ladies or committees purporting to be connected with 
the " Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of United States," unless they 



25 

are always personally accompanied by either Mrs. Brady or Mrs. Dobbins, 
who are the only persons authorized to receive contributions, except that 
stores can also be sent to the office of the Association, No. 135 South Fifth 
Street, Philadelphia, or any donations can be addressed to them there. 

It might seem invidious to mention the names of individuals or firms, 
or of Ladies' Aid Societies throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, or 
indeed of numerous other friends generally, who have liberally supported 
from time to time the Ladies' Association. Let it suffice, therefore, that 
the warmest thanks are cordially tendered by us to them all. 

Mary A. Brady, 

President Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of U. S., 
July 28, 1863. 135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia. 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 

Philadelphia, July 29, 1864. 



(From the Evening Bulletin of February 15, 1864.) 

Report of a Fifth Visit of Ladies to the Wounded Soldiers at the 
Front of the Army of the Potomac, at Culpeper, Virginia. 

"Home, sweet home, there is no place like home," especially to ladies 
who have sojourned a couple of weeks at the extreme front of the Army 
of the Potomac, and during " a^ght." 

It made me smile to read in the widely diffused " Bulletin" about the 
present dirty streets of Philadelphia, and to compare their temporary 
unpleasant condition to the oceans of mud, a foot deep, throughout the 
region of the encampment of the army. Mud, muddier, muddiest, where- 
ever you go at the front, rendering gum boots " a peculiar institution," 
for ladies, at least. Mud here, mud there, mud everywhere. 

But I may as well commence at the beginning, by saying we left Phil- 
adelphia on Monday morning, February 1st, 1864, for Washington, whence 
we proceeded direct, per railroad, to Culpeper, Va., passing over Long 
Bridge to Alexandria, thence to Fairfax Station, across the famous plains 
of Manassas, once occupied by the rebel General Beauregard's forces, and 
the celebrated Bull Bun battle ground, including that of the second Bull 
Run, to Broad Run and Warrenton Junction ; thence to Rappahannockj 
Bristoe and Brandy Stations, to the small village of Culpeper, being the 
extreme front, a colonel of a somewhat, similar old-country style of name 
as mine pointing out to us On the way the different interesting spots. At 
Culpeper, we ascertained we could better locate ourselves, nearest the cen- 
tre of the army, at Brandy Station, so we returned a short distance thither 
on a freight car, and there we found our twenty-nine lai'ge boxes of sani- 
tary stores just then arrived. 

The Secretary of War at Washington had kindly f\icilitated us by pre- 
viously sending to me, in Philadelphia, official "passes" to visit the 
front, saving us the delay requisite to have procured them on our arrival 
in the City of Magnificent Distances. 

My husband had consigned our twenty-nine packages of goods, a day or 
two before our departure from home, to the care of Brigadier General 



26 

Rucker, Quartermaster-General, and Brigadier General Hammond, Sur- 
geon-General, both of whom most courteously forwarded them to the 
front, relieving us of a vast trouble in the necessary forms and routine of 
office. We fully appreciate all these favors from the Government, inas- 
much as my husband could not escort us to Virginia, by reason of his 
professional engagements in Philadelphia, and I was thus deprived of his 
valuable assistance and companionship. His Excellency, Governor Cur- 
tin, kindly furnished us with transportation to Washington. I was, 
however, accompanied by Mrs. S. R. Chase, and the Rev. R. G. Chase, 
both of whom remained a few days at the front, and also' by Mrs. H. 
McLoughlin, who staid with me during the time I was absent from home. 

On the same train from Philadelphia to Washington, were Mr. Jay 
Cooke and Mr. George H. Stuart, both intent upon furthering the praise- 
worthy cause of the Christian Commission, whose delegates at Brandy 
Station kindly introduced us to the only building in that vicinity, — a 
dilapidated old frame Secesh shanty, chiefly occupied by Government tele- 
graph operators, except one room, which was tenanted by Mrs. J. May- 
hew, agent for the State of Maine, and Mrs. H. Paynter, agent for the 
State of New Jersey, and these ladies in the kindest manner extended to 
us a hearty welcome. We were accommodated with a small garret, and 
several former acquaintances from different regiments immediately ten- 
dered us every attention in their power, an "orderly" being detailed to 
remain with us during our stay in our new, or rather old and lofty abode. 
He prepared the way by a copious removal of dust and cobwebs, and he 
patched up numerous apertures in the roof by stuffing them with rags. 

Luckily, we had brought with us one of our stoves, or we would have 
perished with cold and wet, as the weather was inclement. Our bed-ticks 
were filled with straw from a commissary department, but unfortunately 
this light material was affected with a considerable dampness, and I fear I 
shall suffer from influenza and rheumatism. Rats and mice were quite 
abundant, and scampered about our sky-parlor during the dark hours in 
astonishment at so extraordinary an intrusion upon their eminent domain. 
True, we had likewise fetched our tent from Philadelphia, but we felt 
truly thankful for the accommodations afforded us — the best in their 
power — by Mrs. Paynter and Mrs. Mayhew, and particularly for the warm 
reception extended to us by these amiable and philanthropic ladies. 

Having formally reported ourselves to Brigadier General Patrick, the 
Provost Marshal General, we were permitted to distribute our stores just 
where we pleased. Nothing could exceed the kind politeness of officers 
and privates towards us. Wherever we went, it was always the same 
welcome, and we encountered many friendly •acquaintances in whatever 
direction we travelled, kind greetings being expressed alike by officers, 
privates, doctors and chaplains. Their thanks to us, however, for our vol- 
untary and gi'atuitous endeavors to assist a little in alleviating the wants 
and encouraging the efforts of our brave volunteers, really and properly 
belong to the generous public of Philadelphia, and of the various towns 
of the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York, 
who have so frequently assisted us with their liberal and continued dona- 
tions of money and goods on behalf of the patriotic soldiers. To the 
public, therefore, who have often thus aided me, I respectfully and cor- 



27 

dially transfer the reiterated thanks of the recipients of their kind be- 
nevolence. 

The Kev. R. Gr. and Mrs. Chase having returned home to Philadelphia 
after two or three days' sojourn with nie at the front, only Mrs. McLough- 
lin and myself remained, but we exerted ourselves the more to make up 
the loss we experienced by their departure. 

My companion and myself prepared gelatine, &c., for the sick, and dis- 
tributed to the soldiers personally, with our own hands, a variety of warm 
clothing, &c., with which, among other things, we had been provided. 
On one day we were furnished with an ambulance, to visit, with some 
suitable articles, the First Corps, and on the following day the Sixth 
Corps ; on the next day, the Third Corps ; on the day subsequent, the 
Fifth Corps, and afterwards the Second Corps. To each Corps there are 
three Divisions, often far distant from each other, and generally three 
Brigades to each Division, from four to ten regiments being the comple- 
ment to each Brigade, I believe. We therefore travelled a great many 
miles daily in the ambulances, the army being scattered around an exten- 
sive space, over roads almost impassable at times, either for man or beast, 
especially after heavy rain storms. 

On one occasion, the best road was to follow the middle of a shallow 
river for some distance of its course, but after a while, the stratum at the 
bottom of the river being of an unusually yielding nature, caused one of 
the horses to fall prostrate in the water. In this pretty dilemma, my 
companion began jokingly to inquire into the propriety of fainting, but 
upon being informed such was contrary to the rules of the army, we wit- 
nessed with comparative indiffeVence the plunging of the poor animal, 
and its futile efibrts to rise, together with the possibility of an upset into 
a cold, plunging bath, as we already were sprinkled by a shower of water 
from the kicks and splashes of the fallen quadruped. 

After our enjoying (^querj/) the prospect generally for a considerable 
period, we were relieved from so untoward a predicament by another am- 
bulance happening by chance to reach the scene of the river track, when 
a plank was laid between the two vehicles, and we stepped across the 
water from one ambulance to the other in safety. 

The articles most useful on our present visit to the army were, flannel 
shirts and clothing, woollen socks, handkerchiefs, and tobacco. 

Bearing in mind the severity of the winter season, its hail, snow, and 
rain, the chilly blasts of wind, the constant exposure to all sorts of 
weather, both by day and by night, the tramping in the mud, by our 
Union soldiers, who are often wet through, without any change of clothes, 
to say nothing of the risk of rebel bullets, I respectfully suggest it might 
be a good plan for the Government to order a dose of a couple of weeks' 
actual trial of these hardships and privations by the large army of '' stay- 
at-homes," who would then probably be disposed to contribute ample 
means to the full extent of their ability, in the shape of ward bounties, 
to those dauntless volunteers who so freely and patriotically risk their 
health, limbs, and lives in the glorious cause of the Union of our beloved 
country, by a suppression of the great Rebellion. 

For myself, I always feel, when I visit the front of the army, and per- 
sonally witness the universally cheerful bearing and tried courage of the 



28 

bravest of the brave, as I verily believe our volunteer army is, that I 
ought to do more than I do do, although I possess a comfortable home at 
my own cottage in West Philadelphia, and I have a family of five children, 
as I am reminded by the receipt of a letter from my husband, saying 
they are all well, which I need scarcely mention is a paramount gratifica- 
tion to me. Indeed, my thoughts, when absent from home, always con- 
stantly recur to them, and I never cease to be anxious about them. 

Having thus exhausted our time during our first week's absence, on 
Saturday, the 6tli instant, a considerable portion of the army was ordered 
under arms, to advance upon the rebels across the Ilapidan. To see so 
many gallant men drawn up in lines of battle array, was indeed a splendid 
sight. The men themselves, with a loaf of bread thrust on the tops of 
their bayonets, were as hopeful and cheerful as possible. There was not 
a particle of grumbling, and not the slightest fear, but a steady, unwa- 
vering courage, and a determination evinced to whip the Johnny Rebs. 
Amidst a pelting rain and a bleak wind, these hosts of courageous men 
stood anxiously waiting the order to confront the enemy. Their sole 
doubts were only in regard to their loved ones at home, in the event of 
any accident happening to themselves. The drums beat, and with three 
loud cheers for the Union, and for Major-General Meade, the men 
marched away to victory. 

From five o'clock in the morning till late at night all that day, the roar 
of cannon and musketry was incessant, now by heavy volleys, and then 
isolated at intervals. The noise of firing the small arms was terrific, 
and the boom of the big guns sounded like repeated peals of thunder. 
We were a few miles distant from the conflict, when it occurred to 
us that sometimes the vicissitudes of war cause sudden changes in the 
battle-grounds, in accordance with circumstances and the varying for- 
tunes of the day or night. Therefore, my companions and myself very 
prudently packed up the rest of our stores, in readiness for a barely pos- 
sible retreat towards Washington, or else to be prepared for a speedy 
advance to succor our wounded in front. 

One feature in the affray I cannot well describe, namely, the awful 
cursing and shameful swearing of the supply-wagon teamsters, who were 
legion in number, corresponding with the wants of sft large an army as 
ours, especially when the four-footed brutes fell down, or the wagons got 
into holes in the mud. At last the firing grew less rapid, and was gra- 
dually less and still less distinctly heard, and then we knew for certain that 
our victorious boys were pursuing the rebels. So we hastened into an 
ambulance with the balance of our stores, and proceeded to tender what 
little assistance, and all the sympathy we could, to the returning braves, 
and to the prostrate wounded in the hospital tents in the field, near where 
the fight occurred, and some of whom we saw brought in on stretchers. 

On our way, we met some of the former, and your readers, being al- 
ready familiar with the fact that our volunteers had eagerly waded the 
Rapidan, rather than wait for the planting of the pontoon bridges, what 
with the wet, fiatigue, and excitement, shivering with cold, our supply of 
several hundred flannel shirts and woollen socks was quite opportune. 

" See what good two ladies can do," remarked one of the doctors. 
''No doubt you are proud of so many cousins," added an officer. In- 



29 

deed, my husband has no other "cousins," — in fact, he has not a relative 
in t^e United States, except our own five young children. 

Reaching the extreme front again, my assistant and myself busied our- 
selves in ameliorating the sufferings of the wounded, who were carried to 
the hospital tents, many of whom requested me to write home to their 
distressed wives and children, and to say they expected soon to recover, 
when they would write to them themselves. 

" Will you please call and see my wife, Mrs. Brady, and tell her I am 
doing well ? " said one. " Pray comfort my mother, as she has none but 
me left," said another. "Will the 'stay-at-homes' help my children, if 
I should not get better ? " said a third. " Do not forget God," I replied, 
"and all will be well with you and yours." 

We had boxes of stimulants, and cans of condensed milk, for punch, 
gelatine, &c., but we still rigidly adhere to our original rule, never to dis- 
tribute anything whatever without the knowledge and approbation of the 
medical officers in charge, wherever we may be. Here I must be allowed 
te allude to the indefatigable attentions and constant care shown to all the 
men by the surgeons, and the incessant religious labors of the chaplains, 
neither of which branches can be too highly commended. 

It would be superfluous to state, that from personal observation I am 
sure that nothing which skill and money can do for the benefit of the 
well, or the sick and the wounded, is ever omitted to be done by the Go- 
vernment and its officers, here and elsewhere. 

One word in reference to Secesh " farmers" and their wives, who con- 
trive occasionally to be about the army, to beg by day, I verily think 
they are mere spies, and cannbt be watched too closely. One Secesh 
farmer's wife asked me for something, but as I had not stock enough to 
give to our own undoubtedly loyal citizen soldiery, I certainly could spare 
nothing for her, although she did look miserable. She then tauntingly 
asked me, "What might be my rank in the Union army?" and "if I 
travelled regularly armed ? " so I answered, " I was only a Captain-Ge- 
neral," which latter expression seemed rather to puzzle her. 

Another, a Secesh " farmer," inquired, " Whether the North was making 
much preparation against the South this spring?" to which I replied, 
" They were never more determined to put down the rebels, and we have 
plenty of volunteers and an abundance of money." Still another Secesh 
"farmer" asked, "if the North had heard what the South intended to do ?" 
I told him " No, but that I had heard at headquarters that our Govern- 
ment intended to make a signal example of some Secesh " farmers" in that 
neighborhood, who were supposed to he spies in disguise." 

I talked to several rebel deserters on different occasions, and they 
seemed to intimate that the rebel forces would very much like to make 
the rich provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania the scene of the next 
great battles. 

As my sojourn on this occasion to the front was now drawing to a close, 
many of the men, as well as officers, doctors, and chaplains, expressed 
their good wishes towards us at parting. 

In conclusion, as the impression appears to be that the waning so-called 
Confederacy will fight desperately in its approaching last throes, and as we 
should consequently prepare in anticipation for the forthcoming terrible 



30 ^ 

battles, it will afford me pleasure to be facilitated again by a generous 
public, with donations of money and goods, which can be addressed to 
the office, No. 135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, in aid of the sick 
and wounded Union volunteers. I shall be happy to hear from our 
friends in any part of our own State, and also of the adjoining sister 
States of New Jersey and New York, because when we visit the front of 
the army, we do not pause to know where a soldier hails from, but we 
attend to any and every soldier we can, without distinction, or reference 
to the town or State to which he belongs. It is sufficient for us that 
he is a Union volunteer. Respectfully, 

Mary A. Brady, 

CuLPEPEK, Virginia, President of the Ladies' Association for 

February 13, 1864. . Soldiers' Relief of U. S. 

Mrs. Brady having returned to her own home from Culpeper, Va., about 
the 15th of February, 1864, much fatigued, and having evidently overtasked 
her strength, her family remonstrated with her for continuing her efforts, 
even in the good cause of the Union, at a sacrifice of her health. 

Owning a comfortable domicile in West Philadelphia, she was not ac- 
customed to exposure and privations, always incident to camp life at an 
army in the field. The first observation she made on entering her house, 
after her last visit to the front, was, that "I am completely worn outj" 
" I feel so oppressed I can scarcely breathe, as my heart palpitates so 
violently." She had nothing but damp straw for a bed at Brandy Station, 
Va., and the piercing cold and heavy rains, together with the mental ex- 
citement consequent upon a sudden movement by the whole army to attack 
the rebels, no doubt superinduced palpitation and a disorganized action of 
her heart. Being, however, naturally energetic, strong, robust, and healthy, 
Mrs. Brady soon appeared to be sufficiently recovered to enable her to con- 
tinue her customary endeavors to collect donations of money and goods 
suitable for the sick and wounded soldiers in the field. 

Her husband, on his return from a trip to the oil regions of Pennsyl- 
vania, in the middle of May, was as surprised as grieved to find his wife 
suffering from an excited action of her heart, and that a doctor had then 
already pronounced her case perfectly hopeless ! Two o^her physicians were 
immediately called in, and everything which skill and attention could pos- 
sibly effect for her, was done, although unavailingly. Notwithstanding she 
suffered great bodily pain, which deprived her of both sleep and rest for 
five consecutive days and nights, not a moan or cry or murmur did she 
make during her sickness, but she endured all her terrible sufferings with 
the utmost serenity and a most perfect Christian resignation. 

In reply to the Rev. F. C Pearson, she often said, '* All is well." "I 
know I am dying, and am quite resigned to the will of God." " My trust 
is in our Saviour." " Christ will soon take nie home." She strove to 
comfort and endeavored to console her weeping family, the youngest of 
her five children being about four years old. To leave her offspring caused 
her most poignant grief, and was her greatest trial. Never was there a 
more affectionate, or devoted, or industrious mother. Whenever absent 
from home her thoughts and anxieties constantly centred in her children. 

At high noon on the beautiful twenty-seventh day of May, 1864, Mrs 
Mary A. Brady calmly and composedly died, in her full senses, surrounded 
by her sorrowing husband and five children. Her end was Peace. 



31 



DEATH. 

BRADY. — Died in Christ, on Friday, the 27th May, 1864 instant, from disease 
of the heart, contracted hy her voluntary efiforts, on behalf of the sick and wound- 
ed soldiers on the battle-fields of the Army of the Potomac, Mary A. Buady, wife 
of Edward Brady, Attorney-at-Law, West Philadelphia, aged 42 years. 

The friends and acquaintances of the family and soldiers, are respectfully in- 
vited to attend the funeral, from her late residence, 406 South Forty-first Street, 
above Baltimore Avenue, West Philadelphia, at ten o'clock on Wednesday morn- 
ing, the 1st June. To proceed to Mount Moriah Cemetery. 

Extracts from the editorial columns of Philadelphia newspapers. 
From the "Ledger," May 29th, 1864. 
The Death of Mrs. Brady. — On several occasions we have noticed in our local 
columns the philanthropic exertions of Mrs. Mary A. Brady, of this city, whose 
attentions to the sick and wounded soldiers on the battle-fields in Virginia, are 
well known to the community. Her acts were purely voluntary and constant. 
We regret to hear of the sudden decease of this estimable lady — her attending 
physicians attributing her death, in the prime of life, to overtasking her strenoth 
in behalf of the patriot soldier, causing disorganization of the heart, which ter- 
minated her useful life on Friday last, at her own home in West Philadelphia. Mrs. 
Brady was a very exemplary wife, most faithfully devoted to a young family of 
five children, who are bereft of their best friend at a tender age. On Mrs. Brady's 
return from Culpeper, at the time of General Kilpatrick's raid towards Rich- 
mond, last February, she complained of over fatigue, with palpitation of the heart, 
arising from the excitement of the roar of cannon and musketry in the iaimedi- 
ate vicinity where Mrs. Brady was in attendance on the wounded. However, she 
since made preparations of donations of sanitary stores, with the expectation of 
again ministering to the wounded in Virginia during the present battles. At the 
approach of her death, it was suggested that her husband should personally con- 
vey the articles collected by her, direct to the wounded in Virginia, and which he 
proposes to do at an early opportunity. 

From the " Inquirer," May 30th, 1864. 
Death of a Philanthropist. — The death of Mrs. Mary A. Brady occurred 
last Friday. This estimable lady had been actively engaged in providing for the 
wants of the sick and wounded, and by her individual efforts, had been the means 
of administering personally to the relief of their sufferings. She was in the prime 
of life and full of energy, which she allowed to be used to so great an extent as to 
overtax her strength, which, it is thought, caused her death. She had been ac- 
tively engaged in collecting some stores which she expected to have used in 
ministering to the wounded during the present battles. Her husband will see 
that her designs are carried out by personally carrying the articles to those for 
whom they were intended at the front of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. 

From the "Press," May 31st, 1864. 
An Estimable Lady Deceased. — Mrs. Mary A. Brady, the President of the 
Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of Philadelphia, for the welfare of the 
Union soldiers, died at her residence, in West Philadelphia, on Friday, the 27th 
May instant. The funeral will take place on Wedneailay next, the first day of 
June •, the burial in Mount Moriah Cemetery. The deceased was one of those 
estimable ladies that seem to grace the earth with heavenly attributes. In her 
devotion to the wounded and sick soldiers in the field, she occupied a most pro- 
minent, self imposed position, and it may be truly said that it was the cause of her 
demise. This lamented lady died, it maybe said, with the "harness on her 
back," and almost suddenly. She had constantly attended the soldiers on the 
battle-fields, and being in the prime of life, was capable of great endurance, but 



32 

she overtasked her strength, resulting in disorganized action of the heart. On 
her return from Brandy Station, Va., at the time of General Kilpatrick's raid, 
in February last, she was seized with palpitation of the heart, aggravated by 
the unexpected war movement that then occurred. The roar of cannon, the 
rattle of musketry, and the dash of the cavalry, were too exciting for hex-, and 
from this moment may be dated the insidious disease that terminated in death. 
In the language of an anonymous author, her many friends may truly say, — 

" Rest, angel, rest, 

Wait the Almighty will. 
Rise unchanged, 

And be an angel still." 

Mrs. Brady has left a family of five young children to the protection of their father. 
We might also say of this patriotic Christian lady, that she had recently collected 
some sanitary stores which she intended to convey and distribute in person td 
the wounded soldiers in Virginia. As her death was fast approaching, she sug- 
gested to her husband that he should personally convey those articles direct to 
the wounded in Virginia, which mission he intends to fulfil at an early day. 

From the "Evening Bulletin," June 1st, 1864. 
Obituary Notice of Mrs. Mart A. Brady. — The removal by death of one so 
widely known as Mrs. Mary A. Brady, deserves more than a passing notice. 
At the beginning of the present sad civil war, she devoted herself with a zeal 
that was truly praiseworthy, to the relief of our brave soldiers of the Army of the 
Potomac. She seemed to feel a lively interest for the noble men that were fight- 
ing for the Republic. In the winter quarters of the army, and at Falmouth and 
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Culpeper, on the bloody fields where thousands 
were lying in their agony, she wrought with an energy and perseverance that was 
almost inspired. A palpitation of the heart demanding the most delicate and 
careful treatment, was aggravated by her unwearied labors, and she fell a mar- 
tyr to her far-reaching benevolence and philanthropy ; and she worked on. 
The late battles in Virginia found her for the first time too feeble to visit the army ; 
but still she hoped to complete the work she so nobly began. God, however, or- 
dered it otherwise. She calmly died, in the confidence of a perfect faith in the 
comfort of a reasonably religious and holy hope, at noon on Friday, the 27th of 
May, 18G4, at her own home in West Philadelphia, surrounded by her husband 
and a family of five young children, towards whom she was a most industrious 
and very tender mother. Her loss to them is irreparable, having always watched 
over them with extreme affection and unceasing devotion. Her eyes have looked 
for the last time upon the scenes of death and carnage, but they have opened 
upon a brighter land, where there is no more suffering ; where the sound of war 
never comes ; where the work of righteousness is peace and quietness, and as- 
surance in Christ forever. R. G. C. 

The funeral of Mrs. Brady was exceedingly largely attended by all 
classes, and five ministers of the Gospel of Christ, Rev. B. Watson, Rev. 
R. Gr. Chase, Rev. G. W. Lybrand, Rev. J. Cooper, and Rev. F. C. Pearson, 
each delivered eulogistic addresses or appropriate prayers, and she was 
buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery, after an observance of the rites of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church of England, of which country she was a 
native, having emigrated to the United States about eighteen years ago. 

Fervid letters of sympathy on the mournful occasion were sent to Mrs. 
Brady's family by Governor Curtin, Judge Allison, Hon. Frederick C. 
Brewster, Hon. Miss Dix, and many others, especially by numerous officers 
and hundreds of soldiers, who expressed deep sorrow at the untimely loss 
of their departed friend. Indeed, earnest and heartfelt sympathy and regret 



were universally expressed in letters from many and many a brave patriot 
soldier of the Army of the Potomac. 

On July 21, 1864, the late Mrs. Brady's husband went to Washington, 
D. C, vrith twenty-one boxes of sanitary stores and delicacies which had 
been donated to her, and remaining on hand pipevious to her decease, and 
was favored with the requisite '' passes" from the Secretary of War, Go- 
vernor Curtin having as theretofore kindly provided fi-ee transportation 
thither. A Committee of Ladies who accompanied the Honorary Secre- 
tary of the Ladies' Association, then proceeded with him by steamboat 
down the Potomac River to City Point, Va., via^Portress Monroe and the 
James River, and thence to the extreme front of the Army of the Potomac, 
near Petersburg, where they distributed these sanitary stores 'personally into 
the hands of the private soldiers, thus doing the same as would have been 
done hi/ Mrs. Brady herself i/ she had lived. The following is a synopsis 
of their (last) visit to the front, copied from the Philadelphia " Inquirer" 
of August 19, 1864. 

Report of a Sixth (Final) Visit of a Committee of Ladies and the 
Honorary Secretary of the Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief 
of U. S. to the Front of the Army of the Potomac, Virginia. 

Before Petersburg, Va., Au^st 15, 1864. 

In writing to you from scenes of such exciting events as those which 
transpire at the front of the Army of the Potomac, your readers may proba- 
bly expect to be informed of extraordinary occurrences. They will be sur- 
prised to be told that we, at the front itself here, eagerly wait at corners 
of the camps for the daily arrival of The Philadelphia Inquirer, about five 
o'clock every afternoon, to learn by the medium of your preceding morn- 
ing's issue what has, or rather what is, transpiring here in our midst. 
This is explained by referring to the vastness of the Rebellion and the size 
of this army, which extends along a space of fifty miles in front of the 
enemy. Hence the impossibility of anybody, except the Generals in com- 
mand, being able to ascertain what is really going on, unless the whole 
army is moving. For instance, we constantly hear the loud booming of 
big guns on our left, and we frequently see shells bursting over the woods 
a few miles ofi". At the same time we may also witness similar pretty 
sights across the Appomatox River, or on the other far side of the James 
River beyond, both those rivers winding sometimes in parallel directions ; 
but when is or how is there any frequent occasion to be any direct commu- 
nication from those points to this, or indeed between any other points, ex- 
cept by an official concentration at headquarters ? 

Each corps, division and brigade is assigned to separate localities, al- 
though, of course, within supporting distances of each other. Profound 
secrecy is absolutely necessary to the success of army strategy and intri- 
cate combinations on a large scale. The other day a whole corps of men were 
ordered to be ready to march in an hour, with three days' rations. They 
were then directed next morning to march to a landing on the river. But 
whither next ? Of course some thought one thing and some another. 
Some knowing ones were sure they were to go to Washington, where they 
were to repel an invasion thither by the Rebels. Some would be confi- 



34 

dent an attack was expected to be made on us on our riglit, and some had 
positively heard from reliable sources {query) that a flank movement was to 
be made by us against the Rebels on our right. Again, some were equally 
well (^query') informed that a grand forward movement of the whole Union 
army was to take place at mjdnight ! Perhaps heavy firing would be heard 
in a direction which the quidnuncs would declare proved a perfect corro- 
boration of their bomb-proof information. 

Nobody, however, except themselves knew during many days where they 
did go, as after they had been put on board a fleet of transports and pro- 
ceeded ten or twenty mij|s down the river, after it had been ventilated at 
the landing thatthe orders were to go to Washington, a fast propeller des- 
patch boat overtook the transports, with orders to proceed backwards to a 
spot beyond our ken here. The consequence is we ourselves at one part 
of the front patiently wait several days to hear the news from your popular 
paper, The Inquirer. The philosophy of the case is, that you employ for 
your paper energetic news commissioners at all points throughout the 
Union armies, and the quickest way for us here, or for others at different 
points elsewhere, to ascertain what is going on at the front, except in one's 
own immediate circumscribed locality, is to read The Inquirer, and it is* 
also often a scramble to obtain a copy of it. 

During the past week, in this vicinity, we have not had anything super- 
latively startling to communicate to you. The debris at the landing at 
City Point, of *' all sorts," embracing bits of exploded iron shells, rotten 
cabbages, ground coffee, pieces of white and colored men's legs, heads, 
arms or bodies, salt pork, hard tack, et id omne genus, composing a most 
heterogeneous mass, thrown about in all directions, in a segment of half a 
mile, are now already nearly cleaned up, and new frame sheds are erected 
on the site of the explosion at the wharf on the 9tli instant. Of course 
this accident, causing death and injury to many men, created some talk 
here at the time, and even for a couple of days afterwards, but bloody 
catastrophes become such very common events in an army in the field, 
that the blow-up in question soon gave place to other exciting topics. 

Unfortunately war numbers its victims by thousands, and tens and twen- 
ties of thousands in a single day, and often at quite short notice, and these 
" casualties," as we familiarly designate them, are repeated at very fre- 
quent intervals, and our minds being accustomed to these sad sacrifices, 
although they are necessarily made for the cause of human freedom and 
the salvation of our beloved country, we scarcely heed so heavy a destruc- 
tion of human life. It is certain, however, the people are more deter- 
mined if possible than they have ever been hitherto to uphold the Union 
and to suppress the still existing and wicked Rebellion, now on its last legs, 
with its despairing, desperate, convulsive throes, thanks to the noble army 
of patriots who have fought the good fight for the '' land of the free and 
the home of the brave," and for the cause of freedom to the human race. 

One or two little episodes in the history of this array occurred hei'eabout 
yesterday, the one of a gratifying yet mournful nature, and the other of a 
truly ignominious character. A well-known lawyer of the City of Broth- 
erly Love, the husband of the late Mrs. Mary A. Brady, whose memory 
is green in the hearts of thousands of our soldier boys and, doubtless, of 
as many people in your city,- has recently been here to distribute the con- 
tents of two or three supply wagon loads of boxes, consisting of flannel 



35 

shirts and sundry delicacies, suitable to the wants of the sick and wounded 
soldiers. It is recollected that Mrs. Brady, from time to time, during a 
period of three years, devoted herself to alleviate the sufferings and to 
soothe the minds of the brave boys who have so often stood a living wall 
of protection and defence between us and the Rebel hordes. Finally, at^ 
Culpeper, this estimable lady overtasked her strength, which, together 
with the exposure and privations incident to her visit on various battle- 
fields, caused a sacrifice of her life to her patriotism at an early age. Her 
cheerful manner is well remembered, and her somewhat sudden death, 
on May 27th last, was deeply and universally regretted. 

Previous to her decease, it seems Mrs. Brady had collected, as usual, 
many donations for distribution by herself at the front, from citizens of 
Pennsylvania, whose confidence she possessed, and it was these sanitary 
stores which her bereaved husband has himself personally handed, in the 
name of their departed friend, into the hands of the men themselves at 
the extreme front of the Federal lines on the left of Petersburg. I need 
not add that both pleasure and grief were mingled at this reminiscence of 
the much-lamented Mrs. Brady. Her husband deeply mourns her. 

At the picket lines near by, two unworthy members of a Philadelphia 
regiment deserted in broad daylight to the rebels, whose lines of pickets 
were distant about a hundred feet only, at that spot. Their desertion was 
as unexpected as it was sudden. A sergeant of the vidette called out 
" halt," and " shoot them," and one of them immediately fell down mor- 
tally wounded. The other got across without being hit, and of course in- 
formed the enemy of the present movements, &c., of our army. The one 
who was shot was then brough^>^n by his former companions, and he died 
in an hour afterwards and thus escaped being hung. It was subsequently 
ascertained that he had formerly deserted from the rebels, when forth- 
with he took the oath of allegiance to the United States, and having re- 
sided in the North for some months he received the proflfered bounty upon 
his enlistment in a regiment which he could easily find out was already 
placed at the front of the Army of the Potomac. 

Generally the firing of musketry and cannon, by both the Union and 
Rebel armies near Petersburg, are incessant, slackening during the heat of 
the day, the thermometer ranging between 100° and 110° in the shade. 
No rain having fallen here for a period of thirty days, the dust is stifling, 
and the flies are as abominable as one of the plagues of Egypt. The dust 
is worse than the heat, and the flies are far worse than the dust. 

The hospitals at City Point, including that under the efficient charge of 
Dr. J. E. Harned, are extensive, extremely clean and airy, and are laid 
out in wide, long avenues, running at right angles to each other. In front 
of the rows of tents there are covered pathways formed of fir trees cut for 
the purpose, around the stems of which are entwined small leafy twigs and 
branches, while the roofs are made a foot thick, of similar sylvan materials. 
The entrances are tastefully displayed in fiuicy arbor style, and the spaces 
between each tent are cultivated with garden flowers. Nothing is neg- 
lected which can reasonably contribute to the comfort jind speedy recovery 
of the present nine thousand five hundred sick and wounded patients. 

To each corps at the front is attached a field hospital, to which the sick 
and wounded are first taken for treatment, until convalescent. At the 
Fifth Corps Hospital in the field, which I have visited, I encountered the 



36 

invaluable agency of the United States Christian Commission. Their 
voluntary labors and abundance of stores, always accompany the army 
everywhere, whether on a forced march or on the gory battle-fields, or on or- 
dinary movements. They receive no pay, and their delegates give their 
gratuitous services for terras of six weeks at a time. Mr. George S. 
Chase is the indefatigable field agent of the Christian Commission of the 
corps just named^ and his operations are in the immediate neighborhood 
of the outer line of works in close proximity to Petersburg. We travelled 
together for a few hours last week, when he donated among other things 
three sheets of paper, with implements of writing, to every private in a 
brigade of four regiments, that afternooxi, and which materials, to enable 
the boys in an isolated spot to while away dull care by communicating with 
their relatives at home, were appreciated by the soldiers as much as their 
weight in gold. 

The chief agents of this blessed institution at City Point, Va., are Mr. E. 
J. Williams, Mr. J. Cole and Mr. J. E. Fitz, the value of whose exer- 
tions may be illustrated by alluding to their ministering, in a prayerful spirit, 
liberal quantities of hot tea, coffee, and milk punch, with palatable solid 
refreshments, during all night, to a boat-load of eight hundred and fifty 
men, wounded at last Sunday's fight near Malvern Hill, on their arrival 
at the wharves here from the field of battle, at eleven o'clock last night. 
I heard some badly wounded men, in the agony of pain from freshly am- 
putated limbs, express grateful thanks to the delegates for their kind atten- 
tions to them in the hour of their tribulations. A member of the Chris- 
tian Commission meekly answered that it was to them, the brave, patrio- 
tic soldiers, to whom the greatest acknowledgments were due, for risking 
their limbs and lives as a stone wall of security fof the citizen stay-at-homes, 
whose privilege it is to supply the means to allay the hardships of the 
wounded, who have fought against this wicked slaveholders' Rebellion. 

It is said here that the loyal people of the North felt gloomy anticipa- 
tions about the fall of Richmond after General Grant's futile attempt 
to take Petersburg, on the 23d ultimo. To such, I would entreat a little 
patience. A good deal has been going on here since, from which, I assure 
you, may reasonably be augured splendid results, which will doubtless 
satisfy even the sanguine. "Rome wa§ not built in a day," and your read- 
ers may rest confident the Army of the Potomac will once more give a 
satisfactory account of what it is essaying to do. Prudence does not leave 
me at liberty to divulge anything further of what is constantly transpiring 
here, but all is progressing favorably. The army is in the best of spirits, 
and they have no qualms as to their anticipated success. 

Edward Brady, 

City Point, Virginia, Honorary Secretary of the Ladies' Association 

August 15, 1864. for Soldiers' Relief of U. S. 



In consequence of the death of the President, the Ladies' Association for 
Soldiers' Relief of U. JS. is now finally discontinued. No person is autho- 
rized to receive donations in their name or hehalf Their best thanks are 
respectfully tendered to the philanthropic public for a continued and 
liberal sympathy, especially on behalf of the late 31rs. Mary A. Brady. 

Edward Brady, 

135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, Honorary Secretary of the Ladies' 

July 29th, 1864. Association for Soldiers' Relief of United States. 



^ 



The follo^ving is a copy of a letter from the Hon. the Secretary 
of War of the United States. 

War Department U. g., 
Washington City, D. C, July 28, 1863". 

Madam : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
note of the 24th instant, with the accompanying printed Eeport, 
and I beg to return to you the thanks of this Department for the 
eflSeient and humane services you have rendered to our soldiers in 
the Hospitals and on the Field. 

The voluntary and benevolent labors of yourself and your Asso- 
ciation are highly appreciated by the Government, and it will be 
my pleasure to afford every proper facility for their exercise, sub- 
ject only to such Eules as^aybe prescribed by the proper au- 
thorities for the regulation of the TJ. S. service. 

"Whenever the exigencies of battle shall require the presence of 
yourself and the ladies of your Association, timely facilities will 
be provided. 

With great respect, I am, madam, 

Your obedient servant, 

Edwin M. Stanton. 
To Mrs. Mart A. Brady, 

President Ladies' Association for Soldiers' Relief of U. S., 
135 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





013 764 273 6 



